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Summary: Something's not right. The world is not as it should be. The Monkey Master never arose, the aliens never came, and the members of Team Possible haven't spoken in years. Fast Track Universe? AU? Both? Neither?
1. Chapter 1

_Disney owns the characters, I'm just taking them for a test drive._

_----_

Kim Possible's legs burned as she ran; her footfalls light on the wet ground despite her growing fatigue. Even her breathing, heavy though it was, was nearly silent. All those years cheerleading, freak fighting, and now as a Global Justice cadet agent, had kept her in peak physical condition.

Her old mission attire had been replaced by a formfitting GJ field uniform. Her long hair was tied into a ponytail to keep it out of her face, and she wore a special headset that kept her in communication with the team leader, and fed her directions via the headset's eyepiece. "You're gaining on him, Kim," Dr. Director, who was leading this mission, said. "He's about half a click to the southwest of your current location."

"Acknowledged," Kim panted. "What's the sitch on his armaments?"

"Looks like standard villain fare," the veteran spy replied. "Handheld ray gun. It looks like one of those discounted knockoffs that the Despot Depot sells."

"Not a surprise," Kim snickered. "This is Frugal Lucre we're talking about. Those guns are still as dangerous as Hench Co. tech, though."

"And the cryo-detonator he stole is top of the line. It can freeze the whole of Colorado solid in ten seconds flat. It'll make Antarctica look like a tropical paradise!" Dr. Director closed her eye and shook her head. "All this because of a price hike on socks at Smarty Mart."

"A whopping thirty cents," Kim added. "No one said Lucre was MENSA material."

Kim pulled up a map of the area on her headset. She was in the woods outside of her home town of Middleton, Colorado. The nearly twenty one year old woman stopped by a tree to catch her breath. Her target had stopped moving, so she was good to take a breather. Things had gone about as expected for Kim after high school. She was accepted to colleges around the world, and decided to go to UCLA to pursue her degree. At the end of her freshman year, Dr. Director approached her with an offer. Train in the cadet agent program, a streamlined modification of the proposed Fast Track program, and gain full agent status after the completion of her undergraduate studies. Kim couldn't say yes fast enough. She had missed the thrill of mission work. Things just hadn't been the same since Team Possible was forced to split up in Kim's freshman year of high school. Even though she still went on missions, without Ron it just wasn't the same.

After getting a second wind, Kim took off again, using the darkness of night and the dense foliage as cover. "The target is still stationary," Dr. Director reported. "From our thermal scans, he's holed up in the old ranger station. He's still alone, and still armed with the one ray gun."

"Got it," Kim said. She slowly circled the old ranger cabin, checking for an traps that might have escaped the GJ scanners. She then climbed a nearby tree and used one of its branches to get to the roof. She had been at this particular ranger station once before, and remembered that a branch had been knocked down in a heavy storm and tore a hole in the roof. She also knew that the roof hadn't been repaired yet. That was her ticket in. She tapped the transmitter control on her earpiece, using the specialized Morse Code Global Justice agents use when verbal communication could be detected or overheard.

"Found a way in," the message said. "No sign of reinforcements or traps. Waiting for signal to proceed. Over."

"The signal is given," scrolled across Kim's eyepiece. "Proceed with caution. Communications lockdown in effect until target is apprehended. Acknowledge, over."

"Orders acknowledged. Over and out." Kim sighed quietly as she switched to lockdown. She was effectively cut off unless she activated her emergency beacon. _On my own. Just like usual. Just like it 's been since before that last mission Ron went on. Since I left him on his own and he......_ Kim shook herself out of it. No sense in reliving old mistakes. "Head in the game" was always what she told Ron. Now, without him backing her up, she discovered that she had to remind herself to do that very thing.

Kim adjusted her eyepiece to scan for heat signatures. Frugal Lucre was just below her. She could sneak in and use her watch's stunner to take him down. Kim slowly lowered herself through the gaping hole in the roof, and landed with the silence of a ninja warrior. She extended her arm and prepared to fire her stun bolt at the obsessed former retail clerk, but a sound from behind her got her attention. Kim spun and ducked out of the way, but not fast enough. A stun blast slammed into her right leg, instantly numbing it and making it practically useless. The person holding the stunner was one of Hench Co.'s rent-a-goons wearing a thermal camouflage suit. Kim had walked right into a trap.

"Well hello, retail snob!" Lucre declared. "I'll bet you never thought you'd see me again."

"I hoped I wouldn't," she replied through clenched teeth. "That last mission against you was all kinds of wrong. Trying to destroy the internet with the barcode from expired Vienna sausages was just dumb on so many levels."

"It almost worked!" Lucre yelled. "If it hadn't been for that computer guy of yours doing whatever he did to get the net back online after my virus went off, I would have won!"

_And if I'd had an extra hand when that sitch went down, it so wouldn't have gone that far,_ Kim thought sadly. _Stop that, Possible! He forgave you, remember? You just need to forgive yourself. First things first, though; you need to get out of this mess!_ Kim quickly hit the distress beacon on her transponder.

"Sorry, Miss Possible," a voice said from the computer screen in the corner. On the monitor was the smug face of Jack Hench. "You're not getting away this time. Your transponder signal is being blocked. Global Justice won't know that you're down until after it's too late."

"Wait," Kim grunted as she tried to sit up. "You're working _with_ Hench? I thought you said his gear was overpriced!"

"Don't tell me you really thought this was about socks," Lucre smirked. "Hench Co. _is_ overpriced, but Mr. Hench recently took over the Despot Depot and offered to let me run it if I helped capture you. It'll be just like Club Banana and Smarty Mart. The high end and the discount. It's all the same; just the prices are different."

"Smarty Mart merch...... is so not the same........ as Club Banana." _Keep him talking. Keep him talking and make sure they don't notice you activating the emergency transponder on your belt. You may be blocking GJ, but there's one guy in the world you can't block!_

_----_

Fifty miles away, in a nondescript home in the Middleton suburbs, sat one Wade Load. A child genius, Wade had been in charge of running Kim's website up till she joined Global Justice. They still kept in contact, though. Even though the professional relationship was over, the friendship was still there. Wade had started to view Kim as the big sister he never had. He was writing lines of code for the new expansion pack for _Everlot_ when the emergency signal on the mainframe he used for Kim went off.

Wade nearly dropped his Slurpster when he heard the beacon. "Uh oh!" He quickly dashed to that workstation and pulled as many images from passing satellites as he could. "Not good," he said to himself when he saw the image of an injured Kim with Lucre and a henchman surrounding her.

He quickly tried to establish contact with the Global Justice hub in that area. Nothing. _All GJ transmissions in the area are being blocked, _he thought._ There's a dampening field disrupting all of their communications. _Wade tried to contact Dr. Director herself, but the messages kept getting bounced back. _They're on com lockdown, and her inbox is full. Perfect. I told her they needed to upgrade their servers so they'd have more memory! _The direct approach was out. GJ signals were blocked, and all non GJ incoming transmissions weren't being accepted. Not only that, but Wade was under a preemptive court order not to hack into the Global Justice system; even in extreme cases.

If he was the only one at stake, he would do it in a heartbeat. But since he was still a minor, that meant Wade's parents would be dragged down with him, and they didn't deserve that. There was only one chance left, and it was a long shot; a long shot he wasn't sure would be successful. _I just hope Dr. Renton's new modification apps have been uploaded to the onboard computer, otherwise he won't be able to maneuver on that terrain._

Wade quickly grabbed his cell phone and hit the speed dial. Each ring seemed to take longer than the last. To Wade, entire epochs were passing, when in reality it was mere ticks of the clock. His heart pounded harder with each ring. He hadn't called this number in years. He could never think of the right thing to say, or even where to start trying to make up for what happened. But this was an emergency. When the line was picked up, Wade's heart seemed to stop.

"H-hey," Wade managed to stammer out. "It's Wade. I have a favor to ask. A really big favor. I know we haven't talked since you got out of the hospital, but this is a matter of life and death! We need you right now! I can have a ride for you in five minutes."

"Don't need it, Wade," was the response on the other end of the line. "I got my own wheels, remember? Now where's Kim?"

----

"So what's the sitch then?" Kim asked, buying time. "What do you want with me?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Hench mocked. "Payback for all the times you thwarted us, and the best advertising my new Hench Co. Ultra Stun 500-X112 can have!" Both Lucre and the henchman showed off their weapons like they were in an infomercial. "It'll show up as a standard ray gun on all scans, but it has the capacity to be a stunner, or a lethal weapon. And right now, those babies aren't set to stun!"

"And the cryo-detonator?"

"Please, Kim, you're smarter than that. I'm going to have my people reverse engineer it and see if we can incorporate a freeze function into the upcoming Ultra Stun-500 X113. Always looking towards the next model!" Hench adjusted his tie. "Besides, good freeze rays are hard to come by."

Kim took a deep breath and steadied herself. Her right leg was still numb, but she could somewhat move it. _I can't do the 100 meter dash, but I can at least get out of here. I'll think about staying alive after I get out._ Kim had been feeling around the ground for anything she could use, and found a golf ball sized rock that must have been trekked in by Lucre or his goon. She held it tightly in her left hand, trying to take aim without looking like she was. _Desperate throw with my left hand,_ she thought. _I'm so glad they went over this in survival training._

With the swiftness of a cat, Kim threw the rock at the overhead light, shattering the lone bulb and plunging the cabin into darkness. Kim's eyepiece automatically went to night vision mode, giving her a much better look at her surroundings than her foes had. She quickly aimed her watch at the hole in the ceiling and fired the grappling hook. She was pulled from the cabin and onto the roof before anyone could move. Kim did a one legged hop to what she hoped was a sturdy branch and hoisted herself up. She had to rely on the grappler more than she wanted to. She had no choice. With one leg, there was no way she could perform her usual acrobatics.

_Trying to play Tarzan Girl is so out,_ she thought, trying to figure a way out of this. _And moving along the ground isn't going to be much better. Communications are jammed, and we're in com lockdown. I just hope Wade found me some help, otherwise this is it. Taken down by Frugal Lucre. That is such a humiliating way to go out!_

_----_

The cyber robotic wheelchair shot through the air like a bullet. Its pilot wore a special pair of night vision goggles that were linked into the satellite feed Wade had been monitoring. He could see that Kim had escaped, and let out a sigh of relief. _She can keep those guys off her back,_ he thought. _She can do anything! I just hope I can get there in time._ He opened the throttle up full, pushing the chair's propulsion system to its limits.

A readout by his joystick told him that the engine was starting to redline. He probably wouldn't be flying out of there, but a flying wheelchair in the woods wouldn't work anyway. The trees were just too much of an obstruction. He looked at the new controls on his chair. _I hope this works. For Kim's sake._ "Hang on, KP," Ron Stoppable said to himself. "The Ron-man is on his way!" Ron's ever present naked mole rat Rufus, wearing a small pair of aviator's goggles and a scarf, popped his head out of Ron's cargo pocket and squeaked enthusiastically. He'd missed going on missions, and he'd missed Kim. Ron felt the same way.

----

Kim limped through the forrest. All attempts at stealth were impossible with her leg essentially useless. She couldn't put much weight on it without it buckling, and it was still numb and hard to move. Kim was certain that she didn't have very much time, and she was starting to give up hope that Wade's help would arrive in time. Kim did what all GJ agents do when it looked like the final curtain was going to fall. She found as secluded a spot as she could, and set her headpiece to voice recorder mode at its highest sensitivity so she didn't have to talk very loud.

"This is the final mission report of Global Justice cadet agent Possible, Kimberly A. Dr. Director, Jack Hench is behind this. He has a new weapon that shows up in scans as a regular ray gun, but it has a kill setting. He called it the Ultra Stun 500-X112. And he plans on using the cryo-detonator as the basis for a freeze ray upgrade for the next model. He bought the Despot Depot, and is having Lucre run the place. I recommend that you list Lucre as a Class A threat. Yeah, I know how stupid that sounds.

"Thank you for believing in me," Kim continued. "Thank you for giving me this chance." Kim took a deep breath and resumed her message. It was time to say goodbye to those she loved most. "Wade, I know you tried, but I guess some things are just beyond both of us. The day you found me and offered to run my website was the start of a great adventure, and a great friendship. I can't thank you enough for everything. You rock, Wade; you rock harder than anyone or anything ever could.

"Mom, Dad, I'm sorry I couldn't say goodbye in person. I know the mission work scared you at times, especially when Ron got hurt and he couldn't come with me anymore. I don't know if him being here would have changed anything or not. Don't blame yourselves for letting me do this. It was my decision, and it was my calling. I love you guys. Thank you for always encouraging me to do my best, and to not settle. All the good I've done is because of you.

"Jim, Tim, if I find out you're going through my diary, I'm coming back and haunting you for the rest of your natural lives! Then I'll make your afterlives miserable." Kim let out a weak chuckle. "You guys may be pain in the neck Tweebs, but you're my baby brothers. I love you guys so much. I know I didn't say it enough, but it's the truth. Do me a favor and keep an eye on Mom and Dad for me.

"Nana, I wish I'd found out about your military adventures sooner. Maybe we could have connected before I was a teenager. These last few years have been great, Nana, and I've learned so much from you. I'll never be able to thank you enough for that. I'll say hi to Grandpa for you when I see him."

Kim was fighting to keep it together. "Joss, I left instructions that all my old mission stuff goes to you. Don't do the world saving thing because I did, or because you want to honor me. If you want to honor my memory, just keep doing the Joss thing. That's all I ask. I know Uncle Slim will make sure of it. Speaking of, I'll need you to keep an eye on Dad, Uncle Slim. I think he'll need his big brother during all this. I'm sorry I'm leaving like this, but, well, as the chicken said, 'I knew the job was dangerous when I took it.'" Kim smiled when she realized what she'd just said. "That's a Ron line if ever I heard one. He loved watching that on _TV Trash Heap._"

Kim sniffled at the mention of her childhood best friend. "Speaking of Ron, Monique, you were right. I should have listened to you. I should have forgiven myself and not cut Ron off, but I was afraid. I knew that I'd be reminded every time I looked at him. I was a coward, and now, well, that's my one regret isn't it?

"Ron. I know you'll hear this too. And I know you've heard this all before, but I'm sorry. I'm sorry I didn't know that Wade sent you to Monkey Fist's castle. I'm sorry I didn't forbid him from using you to test that stupid Holo-Kim." The tears were now flowing freely, and Kim's voice was audible. "And I'm s-sorry that the hologram failed after you got there, and you were left alone with no one to help you. But I'm proud of you. You tried to stop him. You broke the idols before Monkey Fist could use them. I don't know if all that mystical monkey mumbo jumbo was legit, but if it was, he was the wrong person to have it.

"I'm sorry you got hurt because of it. But most of all, I'm sorry I turned my back on you. The truth is, I was afraid. I was afraid of seeing the chair and not you. I know Monkey Fist paralyzed you when he plunged that dagger into your lower back and severed your spinal cord, but sometimes I think what I did hurt you more than that. I betrayed you and broke our promise, Ron. 'Best Friends Forever' included when said best friend becomes a paraplegic.

"I don't think I could ever have a friend better than you. You're weird, but I like you." Kim thought about that for a moment. "I take that back. You're weird, but I love you. It's not the head over heels romantic variety, but I get the feeling that, if we had gotten the chance, there so would have been fireworks."

"Aw, KP, you're making me blush!" a voice from out of nowhere said. Kim looked up with a start.

"Ron?"

"In the flesh!" the blond haired young man said. He was seated in a cyber robotic wheelchair designed by the mother of his best guy friend Felix Renton. Kim noticed that the wheels looked like something one would find on an off road vehicle. "Wade said you needed help, so I came running! Well, wheeling, anyway."

A small pink blob leaped from Ron's shoulder and landed on Kim, squeaking her name. "See that, KP, Team Possible is back in da house!"

Kim was about to tell Ron that he didn't belong here, that mission work was why he was paralyzed in the first place, but stopped herself. It was fights like that after he got out of the hospital that made her start hiding from him. "Tell me that this thing is like Felix's and can fly!" Kim said as she ambled over to him. She was about to climb on to the back of his chair when he stopped her.

"Nothing doing, KP," he said with is serious face in full effect. "Looks to me like you're not doing so good on the mobility front. You get the best seat in the house!"

Kim smirked and took a seat on his lap. "You're pretty sure of yourself, aren't you?"

"The ladies love the Ron-man," he said nonchalantly. "As for the other question, I kinda burned out the jets getting here. I wanted to make sure you were still breathing when I showed up. Besides, there's a low canopy in here. I don't need any repeat performances of my last trip to the park." Ron saw the questioning look on Kim's face. "Don't ask. Let's just exit stage left and hope the bad dudes don't find us!"

"Too late!" Frugal Lucre announced. He was covered in mud and leaves, but his ray gun was still in one piece and was pointing right at the reunited Team Possible. "That chair looks expensive. You could've gotten that for a quarter of the price-"

"Um, hello, you gotta have a prescription to get a wheelchair, genius!" Ron pointed out, "so just going out and buying one isn't happening. My buddy's mom tricked this one out. She needed to test out another prototype design, and I stepped up, so to speak. Yup, this baby has some tricks. Like this!" Ron closed his eyes, clamped a hand over Kim's eyes, and flipped a small switch next to his joystick. A pair of spotlights deployed from the back of the chair and and bathed both Lucre and his goon in white light as bright as the sun.

Hearing the screams, Ron killed the light, turned the chair around, and threw it in high gear! His wheels kicked up more mud and debris, splattering all over their pursuers. "Hang on, KP, 'cause we are motoring!"

"Come back here!" Lucre screamed. He fired stun bolts wildly, hoping that one of the blobs of light dancing in front of his eyes were Kim and Ron. Lucre hit is rented goon in the legs instead, sending him face first into the mud. "I said come back here! I'm not done with you yet!"

----

Ron's chair weaved its way through the thick forest terrain, kicking up mud with its off road tires. Kim was amazed at Ron's mastery of the chair, but realized he'd had a lot of time to get used to it. She also noticed how right it felt to be this physically close to Ron. The phrase "absence makes the heart grow fonder" kept going through her mind. "Any idea how far the jamming field goes?" she finally asked.

"It was either twenty feet or twenty miles," Ron replied. "I was kinda prepping the chair when Wade gave me the rundown, you know."

"I can imagine," Kim said. "Well, actually, I can't. But I'll let your lack of an attention span slide this time."

"Hey, I have an attention span," he protested.

"Only when it comes to nacos and bashing zombies!" They hadn't bantered like this in years, and it felt good. It was almost like no time had passed at all. "So, does this thing have any defensive capabilities? Like those robot arms that Felix's chair has?"

"We kinda had to take those out to make room for the spotlights."

"Why do you have those, anyway?"

"I wanted to go as the Ferretmobile for Halloween," was the reply.

Kim smiled at her old friend. "Always full of childlike wonder, aren't you, Ron?"

"Hey, I am what I is," he smiled. "And it looks like we is getting close to getting out of here." In the distance Kim and Ron could see a clearing; just big enough for them to get through. Several ray gun blasts started to shower down on them. One hit the wheelchair's battery pack, shorting it out. The chair came to a slow stop. "Hey! Do you know how much those batteries cost?"

"They probably cost less at Smarty Mart than they do where you get them," Lucre taunted. He was wearing a personal jetpack and was weaving wildly between the branches. "You snobs are all the same! It has to be name brand or it's not the same. Well it is the same and I'll prove it!" Lucre continued to dart around the trees like some kind of deranged bird trying to find a place to roost.

"Uh, dude," Ron said. "You might want to-"

"Don't interrupt me when I'm gloating," the disgruntled Smarty Mart employee warned. "Now where was I? Oh yes! I'll prove that there's no difference between name brand and discount merchandise!"

"No, seriously, you might want to wa-"

"Do I cut in on your melodramatic speeches?"

"No," Ron conceded, "but I'm not the one whose gonna-" Ron was cut off by the sound of Lucre flying face first into a nearby tree. "Yeah, y'see, that's why you don't go flying around where there's a lot of trees."

Kim couldn't help but chuckle. "The park incident?"

"The park incident," he sighed. Rufus started laughing hysterically at the memory.

----

As soon as Lucre was down, Kim was able to get his jamming device and shut it off. Within minutes, Global Justice was on the scene, taking Frugal Lucre and the henchman into custody, confiscating what equipment they had, and getting Kim to the nearest hospital. Two hours later, Ron was wheeling himself into Kim's hospital room. The Doctors Possible were at their daughter's bedside.

"Well hello, Ronald!" James Possible said when he noticed the young man. "Thanks for helping Kimmie-Cub out."

"As KP would say, it's no big," Ron said with is trademark goofy grin. "How's our girl doing?"

"No permanent nerve damage to my leg," Kim said from her hospital bed. "I should have full use of it back within a day or two."

"Booyah! KP is on the mend."

Anne Possible stood up and smiled at Ron. "We'll leave you two alone." As soon as Kim's parents were out of the room, Kim spoke.

"It was a big, Ron. It was a huge big. Even though I turned my back on you, you still came to help me."

"Kim, you never-"

"Yes I did, Ron," Kim insisted. "When you were paralyzed in that fight with Monkey Fist, I blamed myself, and I shut you out because I didn't know how to deal. Monkey Fist stabbed you in the back literally, but I did it figuratively. I can never apologize enough for that. I was hiding from you, Ron. I saw what happened to you as my greatest failure. I almost stopped doing missions after you got hurt!" Ron wheeled close enough for Kim to lean in and embrace him. "I missed you so much, Ron. It was like a part of me was gone!"

"That's how it was for me too, KP," Ron said quietly. "For a while, I thought you were disappointed in me for screwing up."

"I was the one who screwed up, Ron." Kim pulled away and looked her best friend in the eyes. "But let's start over. Rebuild the friendship. I mean, if you want to."

"Wanna hit Bueno Nacho when you get out of here?" Ron suggested.

A genuine smile graced Kim's lips. "Deal! But you're buying this time."

----

The sounds of a friendship reclaimed filled the hospital room and filled the heart of an unseen observer, who couldn't be perceived by anyone since she was a few milliseconds out of phase with the surrounding timeline, with white hot rage. She continued watching Kim and Ron; the passage of time playing like a movie in front of her her cold green eyes. The watcher's control over time let her see all the possible outcomes for this version of Kim and Ron, and most of them involved Kim becoming a full agent, and her renewed friendship with Ron eventually leading them down the aisle. This reset had failed like all the rest. Once again they triumphed over whatever separated them and found each other again.

"What are they, magnetically bonded?" the woman shouted to herself. "I split them up but they keep coming back together!" She'd lost count of how many times she'd reset the timeline and tried to permanently split Kim and Ron up. Every time it was something different that caused a rift between them; Kim being taken in by a pretty face and throwing Ron by the wayside, them just drifting apart naturally, even a betrayal that kept them from speaking to each other for the next fifteen years, but somehow they always found their way back to each other. They always found a way to beat the odds.

This whole plan came about after the watcher first escaped into the timestream. She discovered a parallel timeline where the Stoppables never moved to Middleton. Because of this, Kim never became a world saving hero, and Ron just drifted through life. Their paths inexplicably crossed when they were both thirty years old. Kim was now a bitter scientist in the midst of a nasty divorce, and Ron was a fast food manager dealing with the fact that his naked mole rat was dying of old age. Even then, without a lifetime spent at each other's sides, they still became friends, fell in love, and got their happily ever after. But if a life without Stoppable could make Kimmie that mean, then the watcher was sure a Ronless life could, under the right circumstances, wake Possible up and make her accept her true destiny. The watcher then found this timeline, and the experiment began. So far, after at least a few dozen resets, it hadn't worked. The only success she'd had was in preventing Stoppable from obtaining the Mystical Monkey Power. _Fighting Stoppable with super powers the first time was bad enough,_ she thought.

It made her sick. She'd thought of killing the sidekick or preventing his birth, but she just couldn't bring herself to do it. She convinced herself that Stoppable was instrumental in forcing Kim to accept her true destiny. But there was one thing she hadn't tried. It was always Kim who ended things with Ron; the manipulator of time wanted Kim to be the architect of her own rebirth. Unfortunately for her, the buffoon was just too blasted forgiving! But if Ron ended it, if he was the betrayer, then just maybe it would be the straw that broke the camel's back.

_He wouldn't do it on his own_, the woman thought. _Something would have to make a jerk out of him and drive Kimmie away. The right something should bitter her up enough for my plans._ A misadventure she'd witnessed when she first entered this timeline came to her memory. _He gets big headed easily enough, _she thought, _and his head got really big when he got rich. Stoppable, this time you're keeping that 99 million dollars._ A devious grin came to her lips. There was a lot of work to do, but it was work she was going to enjoy.

----

This lone caped figure was not the only observer of events. From another pocket containg a few split seconds of the unaltered timeline stood a being who looked like a small monkey. The clothing he wore was constantly shifting in style and color, jumping between different regions and periods in history. "The Supreme Empress is going to change the past again," the monkey said. "I fear that this may be all that it takes to cause the fabric of the universe to unravel completely." He turned and faced a quartet of teenagers he had gathered from different points in this timeline's future before the first reset. "You know what you must do. You must reenter the timeline and cease these temporal disruptions once and for all! Otherwise, all that is, has been and ever will be will never happen. It is time, my young friends, to save time."

----

_Author's note:_

_Big thanks for MrDrP for letting me reference his story "Nacho Boy and the Dragon Lady." If you haven't read that, I suggest you do it. Right now. Go. It's a great read! I'll still be here when you get back._

_Who is the shadowy figure trying to change the past, present and future, and what does she want with Kim? Who are the four teeangers with the monkey? And for that matter, who is the monkey? Some of those questions will be answered in the next chapter of "Reset."_


	2. Chapter 2

_Disney owns the characters, I'm just taking them for a test drive. _

_Here we go; another chapter, another alternate timeline. This time around it's a world where Ron never lost that ninety nine million dollars. Let's see how much money has changed our favorite, Mad Dog, shall we?_

_----_

He either sat or floated, depending on one's perspective. While that was disconcerting enough, the fact that he was a small monkey who could speak flawless English, and was wearing clothes that changed styles, eras, and colors faster than one could blink, and Ron Stoppable's famous fears of all things simian would spread like wildfire. His eyes were closed, as if he was meditating. When he opened his eyes, they were filled with a swirling blue vortex. The monkey let out a worried groan. "The timeline has again been altered. I can feel the tapestry of reality beginning to unravel. You must stop this, my young friends." A glowing blue doorway appeared in the otherwise featureless white expanse. "I cannot place you in an exact time or place in the new reality. I just hope I can place you in such a place that you can prevent the timestream's destruction. Go now. Do what must be done."

A quartet of teenager walked through the doorway, and then found themselves outside the Middleton Pre-K in the late evening hours. "Kind of fitting," one of the teens said; a redheaded nineteen year old clad in a black long sleeve t-shirt, grey cargo pants, gloves and a utility belt. He took in the view around them. "Remember when Mom and Dad brought us here on their last anniversary, Dawn? You and Dad tried to play on the seesaw and almost broke it."

"Yeah," the dirty blonde sixteen year old girl replied. She wore a purple short sleeve shirt and black pants with a purple stripe going down the sides of the legs. Her large emerald eyes were framed by a pair of oval shaped rimless glasses. "This whole sitch is wrong on so many levels, RJ. I mean, why do something like this?" A naked mole rat scampered up the girl's arm and hugged her face. "Thanks, Rachel," the girl smiled.

The remaining members of their party, a sixteen year old Japanese girl dressed in a similar uniform to RJ's, and a fifteen year old boy with long black hair, wearing a green and blue variant of Shego's uniform, joined their comrades. His face was full of conflict and sadness. "You don't know the half of it," he muttered.

"Well, first thing's first," the Japanese girl said. "We need to find your 'rents." Her own naked mole rat Roxy poked her head out and squeaked in agreement.

"And then what, Hana?" RJ asked. "We just go up to them and say 'Hey, we're your kids form a future that's not gonna happen now because someone called the Supreme Empress keeps altering history, but we don't know how or why?"

Hana Stoppable looked at the young man, who was technically older than she was, and glared. "I don't care if you are older than me, Junior, I'm still your aunt and I can still kick your biscuit from here to Yamanuchi. Understand?"

"Sorry, Han," Ron Stoppable, Jr. replied sheepishly. His sister Dawn just chuckled.

"You guys have it easy. Your mom can't give you third degree plasma burns." The young man in green and black sighed and hung his head. "You just have to deal with Aunt Kim and Uncle Ron. I might have to deal with my 'rents if my dad decides to try one of his hair brained take over the world schemes, and if that happens....." he trailed off, not wanting to think about the fact that, in this world, Dr. Drakken and Shego were still wanted fugitives.

"We'll get through this, Joey," Dawn said. "Somehow."

Joey Lipsky, aka Nogo, reached into his collar and pulled out a small stone fragment attached to a cord around his neck. They all wore similar necklaces, and they all carried extras for Kim, Ron and Rufus. Those stones were the only things keeping Hana from being shunted back to the future and becoming integrated with this timeline's version of her, and kept Joey, Dawn, RJ and the mole rats from fading out of existence.

Hana came up to Joey and hugged him. "We'll put it all back, baby. We'll fix this."

"You're not the one who might have to fight your parents," Joey said in a quiet voice.

"Uh, maybe we should figure out what we're going to do next," Dawn suggested. She watched Hana comfort Joey with sadness in her eyes. This version of her aunt was from Dawn's past, and she knew the rough road that lay ahead for Hana and Joey. That knowledge broke her heart.

"Good idea, Dawnie," Joey said, pulling himself out of his funk. "I think we should just go with what we know. We'll split up and look for Aunt Kim and Uncle Ron. Han and I will check Upperton, you two check here in Middleton. And hope my mom doesn't drop in to get the jump on Aunt Kim and wind up frying us."

"Why don't you use the MMP to look for Dad, Hana?" RJ asked. "I mean, you've always been able to sense where he is."

"In this timeline, my brother never got the Mystical Monkey Power. That link just isn't there. Besides, from what that Tempus guy told us about what became of your dad in this reality, I wouldn't recognize his chi anyway." Hana smiled at her team. "We meet back here in twenty four hours," she said before hugging the future versions of her niece and nephew. "You guys growed up real good. I'm proud of you."

----

Upperton, Colorado used to be seen as a place where nothing ever happened. That is, until Ron Stoppable bought a huge mansion and moved in. Now there were huge parties every weekend. Only the most elite of the elite got on the guest list, and that was only because Ron himself wasn't in charge of the invitations. That job fell to his self proclaimed administrative assistant Bonnie Rockwaller. In truth, Ron had nothing at all to do with any of the parties, except for the Halloween haunted house he put together every year for the kids of the Tri-City. That event was free and open to all. Even with all that money, Ron still had his childlike wonder; or at least, that's what he wanted the world to think. Bonnie, however, kept trying to get rid of it.

Tonight Ron was back in Middleton for the grand opening of the Ferret Hole Club; a nightclub he decided to open after buying the rights to the Fearless Ferret. Bonnie, of course, was by his side, nagging him as usual.

"This was a waste of time and money, Ron," she said for the millionth time. Her blue gown and her jewelry all sparkled in the pale light of the limo. "You don't need to be associated with nerds and geeks, and that's all that'll show up to this! Think of my reputation! I can't be seen with people like that!"

"Then why did you come along?" Ron sighed. He was already starting to feel that burning in his chest, and the feeling of having been kicked in the back, and all he'd had was a glass of water. _Heartburn from water. Man that tanks!_

"And miss a grand opening event? Yeah right!" Bonnie made no secret that she was using Ron for his money. She admitted as much the day Ron got that ninety nine million dollar naco royalty check from Bueno Nacho. But now, after years of her basically mooching off of him in exchange for snippets of attention here and there, Ron was tired of it. He was tired of the money, tired of the expensive house, car and bling, and tired of the fact that Kim had been right the whole time. That last thought made his heartburn worse. He hated thinking about Kim.

----

The mysterious watcher known as the Supreme Empress smiled at Ron Stoppable's predicament. In her own timeline, the sidekick had been nothing but a nuisance. Her eventual solution to the Ron sitch had been quite ingenious if she did say so herself. _But this is so much better,_ she thought. The Empress couldn't help but think that being forced to take refuge in the timestream was a real stroke of good luck.

But then something happened; something that continued to happen in the last reset when Ron had been paralyzed by Monkey Fist. The Empress felt bad for him. Terrible in fact. At that moment she wanted nothing more than to reach out and comfort the blond man. Fortunately for her, that moment eventually passed and the malevolence returned.

"Well, Ron's life has sufficiently gone down the tubes," the Empress laughed. "Let's see how Kim Possible is faring this time around."

----

Kim Possible shook her head at the extravagance before her. "Yet another one of Ron's lame ideas," she bitterly muttered. "I can't believe I let you talk me into coming here, Larry."

"Oh come on, cousin!" her bespectacled companion said. "This is the place to be in the comic book fandom world."

"Which begs the question of why I'm here," Kim groaned.

"Because your folks asked me to get you out of the house," Larry replied in a matter of fact tone.

"It's pretty bad when the cheerleader has to be taken out by the LARPer," Kim sighed. "But why here, to a club that _Ron_ owns?" Ron's name was said with disgust and hurt. Then Kim watched as Larry's gaze followed an attractive woman in a Ferret Girl costume walking across the street. "I think that answers my question." Kim mussed Larry's hair. "Awwww, our little guy is becoming a man," she teased.

"Quit it!"

"You are just too cute!"

----

Joey Lipsky, now clad in a green shirt and blue jeans, waited outside the bathroom of the park he and Hana had ventured to. He was profoundly glad that the talking monkey had provided them with civilian clothing, otherwise mingling with the population at large would have been next to impossible. Especially for him. In this timeline, Shego was still wanted by Global Justice and local law enforcement; walking around in a similar uniform wouldn't have been in his best interests. "Okay, Joey, let's go," Hana said as she stepped out of the ladies room. She was clad in a red shirt and black cargo pants.

"I have no idea even where to look," Joey sighed. "I mean, this isn't the Uncle Ron I've known my whole life! Without Wade and Joss this is gonna be like looking for a needle in a haystack!"

"We could always go to Go Tower and see if your uncle will let us use their sensor grid," Hana joked. Joey shot her a dirty look. "Okay, bad joke. Sorry."

"Maybe we should have stuck with Dawn and RJ to find your brother and Aunt Kim. Between the four of us we - " Joey was cut off by an angry squeak from Roxy. "Sorry, between the six of us, we should be able to find two people in the Tri-City."

"I thought of that too, but I don't know how much time we have before reality goes poof," Hana said. "Our best bet is to split up and cover more ground. Besides, splitting up was your idea. Remember?"

"Yeah, I know," Joey sighed. "If that Tempus guy could pull us from different parts of the future, then how come he couldn't come here and stop whoever's doing this?"

"You heard him, Joey, he said he doesn't have a physical form, so needs an anchor in order to manifest outside of the timesream," Hana said.

"And you believe him."

"Yes I do," Hana said without hesitation. "I don't know why, I just........ do. He said he needs the someone with Mystical Monkey Power to tether himself to, and that means my brother."

Joey wasn't buying it. "I know I'm running the risk of stating the obvious, babe, but you have the monkey mojo, too."

"But I don't have conscious control over it," Hana explained. "Everything I can do is all instinctive."

"So this is another one of those monkey power things I won't understand."

"Pretty much," Hana said with a weak grin. "Now let's go see if maybe we can find that brother of mine. I say we scope out all the Bueno Nachos and see if he's having a late night snack attack."

----

"Check it out!" Dawn Stoppable exclaimed. "A Fearless Ferret club! And look; it's all ages! C'mon, RJ, let's go see if it looks like the real Ferret Hole!" The Stoppable siblings, also clad in nondescript street clothes, had found their way to the Ferret Hole's grand opening.

"We're not here to party, sis, we're here to find Mom and Dad!"

"Well, we just kinda did," Dawn said. "Look! There's Mom and cousin Larry."

"Mom and Larry are out in public together?" RJ asked in surprise. "Man, this is an alternate timeline, isn't it?"

"I'm gonna go say hello!" Dawn took off towards the redhead before her brother could stop her. "This can't end well," he said to himself.

"Umm, excuse me?" Dawn said in a shy voice. "You're Kim Possible, aren't you?"

"Yes," Kim replied. She studied the dirty blonde girl's face. She kind of reminded Kim of Ron, but there was something else there, as well; something familiar that Kim couldn't quite put her finger on. "Do I know you?"

Dawn wanted to say "Not yet," but fought off the urge. "I don't think so," she insisted. "I, uh, I just have one of those faces, I guess."

"I guess," Kim replied, not quite convinced. "What can I do for you?"

That caught Dawn off guard. She hadn't thought that far ahead. "Um, well...." Rachel quickly popped out of Dawn's pocket and thrust a blank piece of paper and a pen into her hand. "I'm a big fan!" Dawn gushed, getting the hint. "Can I, uh, have your autograph?"

"Sure," Kim smiled. She was used to this. She took the paper and pen and asked, "Who do I make this out to?"

"Dawn."

Kim blinked. "Huh. That's a freaky coincidence. Dawn in my nana's name."

Dawn tried not to look sad. "Really?" she asked in a quiet voice. "That is a coincidence. It was my great grandmother's name. My 'rents named me after her."

"That's sweet," Kim said, jotting down a quick message. "What's she like? Your great grandmother?"

This time Dawn couldn't hide the sadness. "I never knew her. She passed away a few months before I was born."

"I'm sorry. Well, here you go. Are you here for the grand opening?"

"I thought about it, but my brother's not the partying type. He's waiting for me across the street."

Kim looked up and saw a red haired young man who reminded her more of Ron than Dawn did. "Well, you shouldn't keep him waiting. It was nice meeting you, Dawn."

"Thanks, Kim," Dawn replied. "You too." Kim and Larry walked off leaving Dawn Kimberly Stoppable alone on the sidewalk. "I'll see you soon, Mom," she whispered when Kim was out of earshot.

----

Ron didn't stick around for too long. When he saw Kim and Larry walk in, his heartburn got worse and he quietly slipped out. His stomach had mostly settled by the time he got home, but started up again when he imagined what Bonnie's reaction would be when she came back tomorrow morning. Ron walked into his spacious bathroom and opened his medicine cabinet. What he saw made his heart sink. He had more prescriptions than a man his age should have; acid reducers, medicine for his migraines, and medicine to manage his high blood pressure. He may have physically been in his early twenties, but Ron Stoppable felt like he was in his one hundred and twenties.

Ron sighed and closed the cabinet door. His ever present naked mole rat Rufus popped out of his pocket and scampered up to his shoulder. "Hey, buddy," Ron sighed as the hairless critter hugged his face. "At least I still have you."

"Hnk, uh huh!" Rufus happily squeaked. Aside from his own loneliness, Rufus was the one constant in Ron Stoppable's life.

Ron slumped down on the recliner in the heart of his gaming arena; a wall sized TV, surround sound speakers and every current video game console sat before him. "I saw Kim tonight," Ron told his little friend. Rufus perked up at the mention of his other favorite person. He'd missed Kim almost as much as Ron had. "She came to the club with her cousin Larry. I got a crummy tummy and left."

Rufus moaned in disappointment. "Miss Kim," he said.

"Yeah, I miss her too," Ron admitted. "But there is no way I'm letting her tell me that she was right and I was wrong! Even though she was. And I was." Ron's shoulders slumped. "I wish I'd listened to Bonnie and kept the whole wad of Claude in my pockets. Then Drakken would've cleaned me out and it would be business as usual." Ron sighed and hung his head. "I should have just listened to Kim in the first place. Then at least we'd still be friends. Being rich tanks."

----

The phone book might be so Twentieth Century, but sometimes the low tech approaches work the best. Hana and Joey had leafed through a book in one of the few phone booths that could still be found in the Tri-City and found a listing for Ronald D. Stoppable in Upperton.

"Ritzy address," Joey observed. "That's like, upper crust richest of the rich neighborhood there. You have to pass a credit check just to go visit!"

"I guess in this world my bro never lost his money," Hana said. "As much as I don't like taking the bus at night, it's the only way we can get to Upperton."

"I don't see what the problem is," Joey said, letting his vines erupt from the backs of his hands. They crackled with blue surges of electricity. "If anyone gets too close, I can go all bug zapper on them!"

"And draw more attention to ourselves," Hana retorted. "We're low pro, remember."

Joey's vines retreated back into his arms. "You're getting more and more like your sister."

"Which one?" Hana smirked.

"Both of them!"

At that moment, both Hana and Joey heard those familiar alarm tones coming from their watches. Holographic images of RJ and Dawn appeared over the faces. "We found Mom," the image of RJ said. "She went into a Fearless Ferret nightclub that Dad owns."

"Booyah!" Hana exclaimed. "Love the Ferret!"

"Yeah. And cousin Larry met a girl!" Dawn chimed in. "And now they're going for coffee."

"Larry?" Joey asked in disbelief. "He got a date? This really is a different universe."

"Mom left by herself," RJ continued. "A couple of unsavory types are following her, so we're following them. We're gonna need some backup!"

"We're tracing your signal, RJ!" Joey said, going into mission mode. "Keep tailing your mom and we'll be there as soon as we can."

The images faded and the two teens took off running, glad that even though the kids had newer Kimmunicator watches than they did, the devices could still talk to each other. As they ran, Hana Stoppable felt the monkey power growing within her, waiting for the moment when it would be unleashed. _Hang on, Sis, _she thought. _We're on our way!_

----

Kim Possible had been in the hero game long enough to know when she was being followed. Glancing at a shop window, she saw the reflections of a couple of wannabe thugs trailing her. She also saw those two strangers from the Ferret Hole following them. _Either that Dawn girl and her brother set me up, or they've so got hero worship issues. Either way, this sitch doesn't look good._ Kim took a hard left down the nearest street and ducked into an alley, away from bystanders. _Not good f__or them, that is._

The two ruffians chuckled when they saw Kim make what they thought was a huge mistake. They picked up their pace and followed Kim's path, hoping to take her by surprise. This was their initiation. They had to best Kim Possible in a fight if they wanted to join Villain Apprenticeship Program. They were ready. Until they saw Kim standing there waiting for them.

"I don't know what you two think you're doing," she calmly said, "but you should be turning around and walking the other way." The boys pulled weapons from their pockets; energized brass knuckles and a shock club. Kim rolled her eyes. "Great, more of America's youth wanting to go down that five hundred miles of bad road." Kim assumed a defensive stance and waited for them to male the first move. "Anytime you're ready."

The two young villains in training shared a smirk and charged, only to end up with feet and fists in their midsections. They dropped like barrels of bricks. Kim looked down at them and shook her head. "Seriously, the villain life is so not for you. Go home before you get hurt."

The two delinquents had strange looking metal gauntlets with matching belts. They pressed a button on their belt buckles and were surrounded by a crackling energy field. That field drew in all the trash cans, dumpsters, and other metallic objects to them. The metal twisted, conformed, and melded to the thugs' bodies, forming hulking suits of metal armor. "I think you're the one whose gonna get hurt, Possible! You can't stop.... uh........ can't stop......... aw man! I forgot what we were calling ourselves!"

"Dirk, you moron," the other punk yelled. "We're the Scrap Metal Maniacs, remember!"

"Oh yeah," the lumbering mass of metal said. "Thanks, Kirk!"

Only their eyes were still visible. Kim was surprised that they could still move, but figured that the energy field from the gauntlets and belts had something to do with that. _And those would be the weak points, too,_ Kim mused. _Too bad they''re out of reach. Okay, these two could be trouble_.

Kim saw movement behind the Scrap Metal Maniacs. It was Dawn and her brother. _Great! Not to sound like Will Du, but the last thing I need is a couple of amateurs getting in my way._

"Hey scrap for brains!" RJ yelled. "Try picking on someone your own size!"

"Uh, RJ, we're so not their size," Dawn worriedly pointed out.

"True, but at least we've got them outnumbered now."

"Somehow I don't think that's gonna be much of a help," Dawn said.

"Well well well," Dirk said. "What have we here?"

"It looks like a blonde cutie and some jerk looking for a world of hurt," Kirk answered. "Added bonus!"

"Dawn! Run!" Kim shouted.

"Don't worry, Mo... er, I mean Kim! We can handle this!" RJ yelled. _I hope._ RJ and Dawn Stoppable weren't new to the family business, and had saved the world on their own more times than they could count. But this time was different. Not only were theirs and their mother's lives on the line, but the fate of the timeline itself. RJ and Dawn couldn't help but hope that they had inherited at least some of the Ron Factor from their father. They were going to need it.


	3. Chapter 3

_Disney owns the characters, I'm just taking them for a test drive. I'm writing Kim's Aunt June as Anne Possible's sister. _

_----_

One of the many advantages of time manipulation was the ability to slip into even the most highly secured locations unnoticed. It was a skill the Supreme Empress greatly enjoyed. _Kinda wish I could do that in the old days,_ she thought with a smirk. _Although, it does take some of the fun out of infiltration_. The Empress strode confidently down the well lit hallway, passing like a phantom by the lab's sole occupant, to her ultimate destination.

_Hard to believe this guy kept working on these considering how many times they were stolen. _The Empress fully reentered the timeline just long enough to take a small box labeled "CC Model 1." _This little mind control gadget of Dr. Bortel's should come in handy,_ she thought with a devious grin. The Empress removed the chip from its box and inserted it in a special slot in her gauntlet. "As soon as I fully integrate this into my hypnotic strobe, I can make that loser do what I want, when I want. I should have thought of this before."

As quickly as she appeared, the Supreme Empress vanished. Dr. Cyrus Bortel wouldn't know that his only remaining compliance chip prototype was missing until it was much too late.

----

Ronald D. Stoppable, Jr. had seen many strange things in his life. He had seen his Aunt Hana run up and down walls and on ceilings. He'd seen his father turn blue, float, and perform feats of superhuman strength. He'd grown up around a guy who could sprout electrically charged vines from his hands, and a girl who could walk through walls. But one thing RJ had never seen, and never even thought he would see, was two newbie villains clad in whatever metallic objects were close by, about to attack a version of his mother who was just a couple years older than he was in a severely altered past.

_When Grandpa James said "Anything is Possible for a possible," I don't think this is quite what he had in mind._

Kim Possible, on the other hand, was slightly annoyed. "Look, fellas, you so don't want to mess with me right now. I got dragged to a Fearless Ferret nightclub owned by my sleaze ball of an ex-best friend by my geek cousin, who decided to just ditch me when he met a pretty face in a way too skimpy Ferret Girl costume! I am not in a very good mood right now! So if you don't want me to use you as punching bags, I suggest you leave now!"

RJ and his sister Dawn both flinched at Kim's assessment of their father. "I'd do what the lady says, guys," RJ warned. "Trust me on this one!"

"And you two need to get out of here now!" Kim ordered.

"Oh no," the thug named Dirk said. "That pretty little blonde is coming with me!" Dirk lumbered forward, his motions restricted by the shear mass of the random metallic objects encasing him. "We're gonna have fun, aren't we baby doll?"

Dawn's eyes narrowed. "You so didn't go there!" Dawn crouched into a defensive stance and dove forward, sliding under Dirk's legs as he lunged for her. She rolled onto her back, and then rolled onto her shoulders. Kicking forward, she landed on her feet, ready for another attack.

"Okay, that was impressive," Kim said as she watched the unexpected display.

"You ain't seen nothin' yet, Mom," Dawn said with a wink.

Kim blinked in surprise. "Mom?"

Dawn grabbed a discarded length of two by four and brandished it like a war club. "Oh, boys! I'm over here!" Both of the Scrap Metal Maniacs started lurching forward; each footfall echoing off the alley walls. Dawn started tapping her foot impatiently. "Now! While I'm still young!"

"Hey, babe," Dirk's friend Kirk taunted, "if you really wanna party, why don't you come over here."

"I guess I'm gonna have to. Hey, bro! Catch!" Dawn tossed her improvised weapon to RJ and lunged forward into a handspring and flew towards her attackers.

"Coming at you, little sister!" RJ shouted when Dawn was back on her feet. He tossed the board, but she dropped it in a very Ron Stoppable like fashion. Kim and RJ both slouched their shoulders and groaned in annoyance.

The Maniacs saw this as their shot and surrounded Dawn. "Play time!" they both declared, and moved in to capture their target. A split second before they struck, Dawn dove to the side, safely out of their grasp. With a resounding clang, the metal clad creeps met head on. Literally. They stumbled back holding their helmeted heads; their ears still ringing from the impact.

"And that's why armor isn't always a good idea," Dawn said happily.

"Not bad," Kim said. "Any other ideas? Those two are coming back."

"Not really," Dawn answered. "I was kinda hoping they'd knock themselves out."

"No such luck," Kim said.

"Don't worry! We have backup coming," RJ insisted. "We just need to hold out a little longer."

Kim watched the Maniacs amble towards them. "I hope they're good."

"It's my aunt and her boyfriend," RJ said with a lopsided grin. "They're two of the best."

----

Joey Lipsky, a.k.a. Nogo, and Hana Stoppable ran as fast as their legs would carry them. From one of Hana's cargo pocket came annoyed squeaks. "Sorry, Roxy," Hana said to her pet naked mole rat. "If we go gently, Dawn and RJ might buy it!"

"Not to mention Aunt Kim," Joey added. "I'm just glad we hadn't gotten all that far from their location." He checked the tracking signal on his Kimmunicator watch. "The alley's coming up in a block and a half, Han!"

"I just hope we're in time," Hana said under her breath.

----

"You know, those guys look like metal cupcakes," RJ mused.

Kim and Dawn rolled their eyes. "What was your name again?" Kim asked.

"RJ."

"Head in the game, RJ," Kim snapped.

RJ's observation, meanwhile, didn't sit so well with the occupants of the metallic mishmash. "We're not cupcakes!" Kirk protested.

"Yeah!" Dirk agreed. "We're the Scrap Metal Maniacs!"

Before they could make a move, a voice from behind them asked, "Hey, who are the cupcakes with the stainless steel frosting?"

The metal miscreants spun around a much as they could to see a Japanese girl and a long haired boy giving them smug looks. "For the last time!" Dirk screamed. "We're not cupcakes! We're the Scrap Metal Maniacs!!!"

Joey and Hana shared a look. "Cupcakes," they both said.

"Come on, Joey," Hana said to Joey, "let's have some desert!"

"Ladies first!" Joey replied with a smirk.

Hana and Joey leapt into action. Hana sprinted towards the tinplated toughs, and dove to her right at the last minute. She printed a halfway up the nearest wall and backflipped off of it, landing on Dirk's shoulders. She covered his eye slits.

"Hey! Get offa me!" Dirk's bulky armor made it impossible to get the lithe super ninja off of him; his arms just couldn't raise high enough.

"Okay, that was way beyond spankin,'" Kim said in admiration.

"That's our Aunt Hana," Dawn replied smugly.

"Wait till you see what Joey has up his sleeves," RJ said. "And I mean that literally."

"Hey, pretty boy," Kirk said, trying to get Joey boxed in. "You've got long hair like a girl!"

"And you have a mastery of witty banter," Joey mocked. "Why do I always face off against the dumb ones?" Joey's vines erupted from the backs of his hands and crackled with blue electricity.

"That's a new one," Kim said in surprise. "How can he do that?"

"He takes after his 'rents," Dawn answered.

"Who are his parents?"

"Uh," RJ said, not wanting to answer. "Let's just say you've met them before. More than once."

"What are you gonna do, go all Tarzan and swing on your vines?" Kirk taunted.

"Nah, I thought I'd just do this." Joey's vines shot out at Kirk and wrapped themselves around his ankles. _Gotta be careful on this one; not too much. _Joey sent a low voltage surge of electricity down his vines and into the metal armor. Kirk screamed in pain as the juice went through his metal shell and into his body. Joey quickly cut the power and released his foe. As soon as Joey let the thug go, Kirk's armor went to pieces. Joey had shorted out the belt and gauntlets that had turned the metal objects in the alley into an armor shell.

Kirk fell face first to the ground. "I don't wanna be a super villain no more," he muttered.

"Hey, Han, you need some help over there?" Joey asked.

"Nah! I'm fine!" Hana replied, still covering Dirk's eyes. "It's just like the bucking bronco ride at J.P. Bearymore's!"

"Get off, you dumb little......... uh....... dummy!"

"Hey, Joey! You're not the only one who got a genius. You know, this isn't as much fun as it used to be." Using Dirk's helmet as a springboard, Hana flipped off his shoulder and landed in front of him; right between him and the wall. "Okay, big boy. You want me, come and get me!"

"You're going down!" Dirk charged Hana like a bull in a rodeo. Hana calmly stepped out of his way at the last minute, sending him head first into the wall, imbedding it in the bricks. "Hey! Lemme outta here!!!!! Let me out!!!! Come on, this isn't fun anymore!! Please? Come one! We was just playing! Weren't we, Kirk? Kirk?"

"I don't wanna go to school, Mommy," Kirk moaned, still not really with it.

"Should I get him out of that thing?" Joey asked.

"Nah," Kim said, coming to inspect their handy work. "Let the police cut him out." As if on cue, the Kimmunicator went off. She pulled the mp3 player sized device from her pocket. "Go, Wade."

"The police are on their way to pick up the trash," the young genius said, a split second before the sirens could be heard coming from down the street.

"Gotta go!" Hana quickly said. "Nice seeing you, Sis, but we need to take off. Come on, guys!"

The quartet ran down the alley with Kim in hot pursuit. "Sis? What are you talking about? Who are you?" Kim quickly set her Kimmunicator to scan mode, unleashing a wide spread beam of green light that swept over her retreating allies.

"You'll find out soon enough!" Joey yelled back.

When Kim got to the street, all she saw was the flashing lights of the oncoming police cars. Her mysterious new friends had vanished into thin air. "Okay, this sitch just got a whole lot weirder."

----

The morning hours saw Ron Stoppable doing something he didn't really enjoy; sitting in a meeting. Ron was in his home office, staring blankly at the forms and figures in front of him while his accountant tried to explain the returns on his recent investments. "You think you could just cut to the chase? All these numbers are making my headache worse."

His accountant, Roma Numeral, sighed in annoyance. She loved to dazzle people with her mathematical prowess. "Bottom line, last night's opening surpassed our expectations, and it looks like we turned a very nice profit! Your stocks are doing well, and almost all of your other investments are keeping you more than comfortably in the black."

"You are the bondigetty numbers lady, Roma!" Ron exclaimed. "Bonnie would've driven me to bankruptcy by now if it wasn't for you."

"I've been meaning to ask, Ron, why do you keep her around? It's obvious that she's using you, and it's even more obvious that you can't stand her!"

"She was all I had after things with me and KP went south," Ron said in a sad voice. "Well, her and Rufus. Of course, she was no help at all when my parents threw me out."

Roma couldn't believe what she heard. "Your parents threw you out?"

"Out of the blue! I come home from school one day and they have my bags packed! My dad says that if I'm old enough to be rich, I'm old enough to live on my own. They started the emancipation process and everything." Ron sighed and slouched in his seat. "I was only sixteen."

"I'm sorry, Ron," Roma said. "Now, back to the finances. I've noticed that Miss Rockwaller's spending is out of control. Why you gave her a business credit card I'll never know."

"Me either," Ron replied. _Just like I don't know why I was so harsh twith Kim after I got rich. _"But I did have the bank cut her limit."

"By how much?"

Ron had a devious grin on his face. "Down to twenty bucks. Next shopping spree she'll be in for a rude awakening! If she wants it back, she'll have to work for it. I think the downstairs bathrooms could use a good scrubbing with a toothbrush, don't you?"

Roma couldn't help but laugh. "You are a devious man, Ron Stoppable! It seems like you have that under control. The only other thing is the money you keep funneling to Miss Possilble's tech guy. You're not getting any sort of a return on that."

"No, but I'm still helping her," Ron said. "After how big of a jerk I was, it's the least I can do. Speaking of, send Wade another two hundred and fifty thousand. He'll put it to good use."

"Sure thing, Ron," Roma smiled.

----

"I wish I had better news," Wade Load said over the Kimmunicator. "The scan just wasn't that clear."

Kim, who was sitting on her bed in her parent's house, was more than a little irritated. "I used the wide beam setting. I got all four of them!"

"Six," Wade corrected. "I picked up two more life signs. I can't tell, but they seemed like small animals. Maybe they have pets."

"Whatever," Kim grumbled.

"On the bright side, our anonymous donor just sent us another quarter mill," the young genius reported.

"Well, that's something, at least," Kim said, annoyed that her former best friend had more money than he knew what to do with and spent it on frivolous things, while this mystery millionaire sent her money so she could better help those who contacted her. It made her wish Ron had never invented the naco in the first place. But this wasn't the time for a trip down memory lane. "Any idea why the scan wasn't clear?"

"Interference," Wade replied. "Those guys are saturated with chronitons!"

"Okay, you lost me. What's a chroniton?"

"Basically, chronitons are time particles," Wade explained. "Recent work with the pan temporal vortex inducer proved their existence. If I had to guess, I'd say these guys used a PTVI or something similar. Somehow, they traveled through time recently. Those residual particles messed with the scan. Well, that and two other factors."

"And what factors would those be?"

"Two of them, the Asian girl and the vine guy..."

"You mean Hana and Joey," Kim said.

"Right. They had some other kinds of energy fields." Wade took a sip from his Slurpster. "Hana's I can't identify. It's strong though."

"Well, she did run up a wall," Kim smirked.

"Joey's was easier. He has a powerful bio-electrical field. That probably explained how he shot those electrical bursts down his vines. Unfortunately, I couldn't get DNA scans on them."

"Great," Kim muttered. "What about RJ and Dawn?"

"The chroniton interference made a full DNA scan impossible," Wade said. "However, I was able to get a profile of their mitochondrial DNA."

"Well, that'll tell us who they're related to on their mother's side of the family," Kim said, remembering that unlike DNA in the cell nucleus, which came from both parents, mitochondrial DNA was passed down completely unchanged from mother to child.

"Right," Wade agreed. "They're definitely related. Their mitochondrial DNA is identical."

"That's not a surprise," Kim said. "They're siblings, after all. I mean, my mitochondrial DNA is the same as the Tweebs, my mom, Aunt June and my cousin Larry."

"Funny you should mention them."

Kim gave Wade a funny look. "What do you mean?"

Wade took a deep breath to gather his thoughts. "RJ and Dawn have the exact same mitochondrial DNA as you, and everyone you just mentioned. Whoever they are, they're descended from your maternal line. They're part of your family, Kim."

----

The Pit Stop Diner was opened back in the 1950's as a simple roadside eatery, but quickly became one of the go to spots in the Tri-City. Unfortunately, the retirement of the original owner, as well as fluctuations in the economy, caused the quaint little establishment to go out of business in the mid 80's. The Upperton Historical Society currently held the deed, preventing the diner from being bought out and demolished. In the unaltered timeline, Ron Stoppable would eventually buy the place, bring it up to code, and reopen the Pit Stop Diner under its original name. The only real changes made were to the kitchen, and the display cases that were added to the main room to house souvenirs from Team Possible missions. Now, it looked like the old diner would never reclaim its former glory. All it was good for was as a place to hide.

"Well this tanks," RJ Stoppable grumbled. He and the rest of the future Team Possible had decided to hide out here since it wasn't in use. All four of them had changed back into their mission gear and were trying to come up with a plan of attack. RJ swept the dust out of one of the booths and took a seat. "We're still no closer to figuring out who's doing all this."

"Could be worse," Dawn added, taking a seat by her brother.

"How?"

"I don't know! But isn't that what they say in the movies? That it could always be worse?"

"Yeah, Dawnie," Joey deadpanned. "Right before it really goes down the tubes."

"Can't we try to be a little optimistic?" Hana chided. "We're here, and we know where my sibs are. All we have to do is find them and get the necklaces on them."

"Easier said than done, Hana," Joey sighed. "Uncle Ron's place looks harder to get into than a building with one of my dad's security systems, and I doubt Aunt Kim trusts us all that much after we took off."

"Not only that," Dawn added, "but we still don't know who this Empress lady is and why she's messing with time in the first place."

"KP's a sensible lady," Hana said hopefully. "All we have to do is sit her down and explain the sitch. She'll listen."

"So talk," a voice from the front entrance said. Kim Possible walked into the dim light of the diner. "Explain to me who you are, how you know me, and why I should trust you." She looked over at RJ and Dawn. "And you two need to explain exactly how we're related!"


	4. Chapter 4

_Disney owns the characters, I'm just taking them for a test drive_

_----_

A lone figure crouched in the shadows on the branch of a large tree. Before her was the sprawling estate of Ron Stoppable. Burning green light erupted from her hand and illuminated her face; satisfaction showed in her green eyes.

She wasn't sure what surprised her more; the fact that the sidekick hadn't burned through all his money yet, or the fact that he actually bought a stylish mansion. A smirk crossed the pale green villain's face. "It's been a long time, Stoppable," Shego said to herself. "I think it's time we got reacquianted. And it's high time I got acquainted with whatever valuables you have stashed in there_." Case the joint for a while, then break in and liberate a few things. This is gonna be fun. _

_----_

Joseph Theodore Lipsky, otherwise known as Nogo, felt his stomach do a quadruple sommersault. The woman he'd known his whole life as his godmother, his Aunt Kim, was standing before him in the unused building that was supposed to become his godfather's diner. Joey, his girlfriend Hana Stoppable, and future versions of Hana's niece and nephew had gone back in time to make sure the futures they were from would happen. In this altered timeline, his parents, Dr. Drakken and Shego, never went straight. That meant Shego and Kim were still at each other's throats. _And I'm standing here wearing my own version of Mom's old uniform. I am so dead!_

"Well, I'm waiting," Kim Possible said. She was wearing her newer mission gear of a sleek long sleeved black shirt and black cargo pants; it was all she could find after her old mission gear was discontinued. The fact that she was glaring at them told Hana and the others that Kim wasn't in a good mood. "Tell me what the stinking sitch is, and why vine boy over there is dressed like Shego! Here's a little friendly advice, kid; Shego will kill you when she sees that you ripped her off. I'd stay away from her if I were you."

"How did you find us?" RJ asked.

"Simple. You're the only people in the Tri-City who show up on radiation scans like they went swimming in chronitons." Kim glanced at the four teens in front of her. While Dawn was wearing a rather stylish short sleeved purple shirt and black pants, Kim noticed that Hana and RJ were dressed like Ron used to on missions. _Great, a Shego wannabe and the Ron Stoppable fan club. _She audibly groaned when she noticed that Hana and Dawn both had naked mole rats.

Hana opened her mouth to say something, but Dawn beat her to it.

At lightning quick speed, Dawn spouted, "Well you see Mom it's like this I'm your daughter and RJ's your son from a future that won't happen now because someone called the Supreme Empress changed history to make you and Daddy hate each other and we don't know why or how and a talking monkey named Tempus got us all together and sent us here to stop it so we'll actually be born and time doesn't wind up going poof!"

Kim blinked a few times at the girl with dirty blonde hair. "I don't think I've ever been on the receiving end of that before."

"Sorry," Dawn said sheepishly.

Hana stepped forward. "Let me handle this, okay, Dawnie?" Dawn reluctantly took a seat by her brother. "You might want to sit down. It's a long story."

"I'd rather stand, so get on with it please and thank you," Kim scowled.

"Suit yourself," Hana sighed. "First off, my birth name was Han Katahira."

"Your birth name," Kim repeated sceptically.

"My biological father died before I was born, and my biological mother died in childbirth," Hana continued.

Kim closed her eyes in shame at her own reaction. "I'm sorry."

"Thank you," Hana said quietly. "The only family I had left were my grandfather, who was headmaster at a school in Japan, and my big sister Yori, who was a student at that school. It's a nice school, but it wasn't the best place for an infant, and Grandfather knew that he and Yori couldn't give me the care I needed. Especially when my gifts made themselves known."

"The running up the walls," Kim said.

"That, and running on the ceiling, and super strength."

"How strong is strong?" Kim asked.

"She beat Hego in an arm wrestling match when she was ten," Dawn offered. "He so wanted a rematch too!"

Hana saw the funny look Kim was giving her. "Hey, I am what I is," she said.

"Riiiiight." _And she would be the president of the Ron Stoppable fan club._ "So how did you get these gifts?"

"Magic," Hana replied. "Specifically, Mystical Monkey Power."

"You mean the garbage that guy Montgomery Fiske was spouting when he was arrested for stealing antiquities?" Kim asked.

"What?" Hana asked in a confused voice.

"An English lord who was considered a great archeologist, once upon a time," Kim explained.

"Yeah, I know who he is," Hana grumbled. "Very well."

"An anonymous tip to Global Justice and Interpol got him arrested for stealing these jade monkey statues," Kim continued. "When they hauled him away he was only missing one of them. According to his valet, Bates, Fiske was going to contact me and ask me to help him recover the last one. He was ranting about being the Monkey Master and that the idols would grant him magical powers. He's a total nut job."

"That's why Uncle Ron didn't get the power here," Joey said.

"Okay, you're dressed like Shego, but call Ron your uncle. Why?"

"He's my godfather," Joey replied in a matter of fact voice. "And Shego's my mother."

Kim laughed out loud. "Sorry, kid, but I don't see Shego as the nurturing type."

"She did a pretty good job with me and my sister," Joey shot back.

"Calm down, sweetie," Hana said. "Look, Kim, we're from the future. Joey and I are from about fourteen years from now, and RJ and Dawn are from ten years after that. History has been altered. Monty Fiske, or Monkey Fist as he called himself, was supposed to get the power, and so was your partner."

"Former sidekick," Kim growled.

"Whatever! The point is, Ron got the power. He was to be the Ultimate Monkey Master foretold by legend. He had a destiny to fulfill, like I did. When I was a baby I fought both Monkey Fist and a being called the Yono. Grandfather arranged for me to be adopted by the Stoppables because Ron was supposed to teach me how to defeat the Destroyer."

"Now I know you're full of it," Kim huffed. "Ron's no fighter."

"He didn't teach me to fight, he tought me to play. To me it was all a game. Monkey Fist thought I was a weapon, and wanted to use me as one. To Ron, I was his baby sister. A scroll said 'to love the Han is your good fortune.' Monkey Fist loved my power. Ron loved me. And I love him! Grandfather placed me with the Stoppables to give me a home and so I could defeat Yono. I was renamed Hana Stoppable! Ron became my big brother and you became my big sister!" Tears were forming in Hana's eyes. "You and my brother were never supposed to split up. Yeah, he got all weird when he got rich, but then Joey's 'rents stole all his money!"

A disgusted look crossed Kim's face. "Don't tell me your dad is Drakken."

"Uh, yeah," Joey said. "I'm a Lipsky."

"Eeeewwww! Drakken and Shego? That's an image I so didn't need."

"Are you done insulting my family yet?" Joey snapped. "Or maybe you want me to show you a picture of my little sister so you can start mocking her, too!"

The outburst shocked Kim in its feirceness and its Shego-like quality. "Sorry."

"Sister," Hana started to say.

"Oh no! We are not sisters!"

"Yes we are!" Hana insisted. "You and my brother are still supposed to be working together. You were supposed to fall in love and get married! You're supposed to have RJ and Dawn! Thanks to you, Drakken and Shego go straight and had Joey and Lisa, and because of you my brother accepts the mantle of Ultimate Monkey Master and saves the world from alien invaders! It happened! It was supposed to happen! But now it won't!"

"There is no way I would _EVER_ marry Ron Stoppable!" Kim snapped. "He turned his back on me! He accused me of being jealous of the fact that he's rich! He said that I didn't want him to have friends other than me, and that all I wanted was for him to be my bumbling sidekick to make myself look better! Do you know what it's like growing up with someone and then getting tossed to the side like that? It tanks! It tanks so much that it's hard for me to trust people now! The only friends I even have now are Wade and Monique! So don't go telling me that I'm gonna marry that louse! I'd rather have a root canal without anesthesia."

"Just stop it!" a crying Dawn shouted. "Stop bashing Daddy!" Dawn had always been daddy's little girl, and hearing her own mother insulting him like that was almost too much for her. RJ quickly put a comforting arm around his sister and gave Kim a very hurt and confused look that almost said "how could you?"

"I can prove it," Hana said, wanting to spare her niece any more pain. She pulled a stone pendant out of her collar. "If it wasn't for these things, we wouldn't even exist anymore." Hana pulled another one out of her pocket and tossed it to Kim. It started glowing when it touched her.

"What is it?" Kim asked as she pulled her Kimmunicator out of her pocket.

"A piece of an artifact called the Tempus Simia," RJ explained. "I have no clue what it is, but that monkey in the timestream gave us all some of those things to keep us from fading away in the new timeline."

Kim scanned the chunk of rock. It was emitting chronitons. "What am I suppoded to do with it?"

"Put it on, Mom," Dawn answered with a sniff as she took her glasses off to wipe her eyes. "Tempus said that, when you and Dad put those on, you'll remember the old timeline."

Kim gave Dawn and the others a critical look. "Why should I trust you?"

"This is why." RJ stood up and reached behind his neck. He started untying the cord his fragment was hanging on.

"RJ no!" Hana yelled. "You'll fade away."

"If it gets Mom on our side then it's worth it!" RJ stared Kim in the eyes. "You said you wanted to know how Dawn and I are related to you, but you don't want to believe it. We're the kids you have with Ron Stoppable! 'RJ' is short for Ronald Junior and Dawnie was named for your grandmother; our Great Nana Dawn. Her middle name is Kimberly, after you! This diner we're in right now; when I'm little our dad is gonna buy it and reopen it. It'll be a huge hit! But none of that will happen if you don't help us. And if I have to fade from existence to make that happen, then that's what I'll do!"

----

Shego couldn't help but be impressed. The buffoon's security system was actually good. Anything that made Shego take her time to get through it was actually worth the price. _Normally I'd just bust my way in and take what I want,_ she thought, _but it's been a while since I actually snuck in anywhere. I forgot how much fun this is. Besides, how dangerous can the buffoon be if he catches me? The worst he'll do is lose his pants and fall on his face._

Shego continued to weave through the expansive front yard. She glanced down at the handheld scanner she "borrowed" from Dr. Drakken. It showed her where different security cameras and motion sensors were located. _I underestimated the buffoon. Most people would do increments of ten feet or so, but not him. No, he does two feet here, eleven feet there. Does he do anything like a normal person?_

Unknown to Shego, she was being watched by someone a few tenths of a second out of phase with the rest of time. The unseen watcher smirked at the green skinned thief. "I was waiting for you to show up. That's always been one of your problems, Shego. You take your sweet time. Maybe this time you can give Kimmie that last little nudge she needs to finally wake up and smell the coffee." The Supreme Empress smiled. She had thought about disabling the mansion's security measures to give Shego easier access, but ultimately decided against it. _The only way Kim will come here is if Ron is in real danger. I made sure of that. One more fight with you is all it should take. Then I can move on to the next timeline. This one took way too long._

_----_

Kim stared at the necklace in her hands, and at the resolute look on RJ's face. She didn't know if their story was getting to her or not, but he wore a serious face that would have made Ron proud. It was his eyes that got to her, though. RJ's eyes were the same color of green as Kim's own. _Come to think of it, so are Dawn's. And RJ's hair is the same shade of red as my mom's. They have the same mitochondrial DNA as me, but it can't be true, can it? _Kim looked at Dawn again. _That hair color and those glasses reminds me a little of Mrs. Stoppable. And she certainly acts a little like Ron. But that face...... it's almost like looking in a mirror._

"Wade," Kim said into her Kimmunicator, "what can you tell me about this?"

The young genius went to work, analyzing Kim's scans. "It's spewing chronitons like a fountain!"

"What kind of effects would prolonged exposure have?"

"None that I know of," Wade answered. "We don't know a whole lot about chronitons, but I'm pretty sure that they won't temporally displace you or anything. Why?"

"I'll tell you later, Wade. Thanks for checking." Kim switched off the feed and again looked at the necklace. Then she looked over at Hana and the others. "What's with the mole rats?"

Hana took Roxy out of her pocket. "My brother started breeding them. Roxy here is Rufus's granddaughter."

"And Rachel is his great granddaughter," Dawn added, holding her own dear pet. "It's kind of a family tradition."

"And you're just willing to fade away," Kim said to RJ. He was still poised to take his necklace off.

"Like I said, if it gets you on our side, it'll be worth it."

"I don't know if I believe your little story, but I believe you will take that thing off just to prove a point." Kim smiled at the young man. "It's the kind of thing I would do."

"Yeah well, I'm kind of a chip off the old block," RJ conceded.

"Both blocks," Hana chuckled.

"Okay," Kim said after taking a deep breath. "Let's see if you guys are telling the truth or not." Kim held the necklace in front of here, and saw it start to glow eerily blue as it was brought closer to her. Taking the plunge, Kim started tying the cord around her neck.

----

The Supreme Empress watched Ron yet again get his biscuit handed to him at _Zombie Mayhem_ by Rufus. She noticed that Ron's heart really wasn't in the game. _Too bad, Ronnie. You brought this on yourself, you know. You and the version of you from my timeline. You just keep getting in the way. But not this time. Sorry, but I can't have you messing up my plans anymore._

Then it happened again. The concern came back. _He doesn't deserve this, _she thought. Behind the opaque visor of her helmet, her eyes clamped shut. _He never did anything to hurt me intentionally. He was trying to help me. He always tried to help me. I was the one who ran and hid in the timestream._

_He so deserves it! _the darker part of her mind argued. _He betrayed me and fought against me! He deserves this and a whole lot more! He's lucky I don't erase him and every other version of him from time!_

_---- _

Blue light shot from Kim's eyes after the pendant was in place. Her mind opened, and a flood of memories from a life not lived rushed into her brain. The mission in Cambodia came first, followed by Ron going to Monkey Fist's castle with only a Holo-Kim for backup. _I should have been there. Having to get between those monkey statues must have been horrible for him!_

More missions against the fake Monkey Master followed, as well as an exchange trip for Ron to Japan. _I so can't believe how Monique and I acted around Hirotaka. Or how much I missed Ron when he was gone._

The ultimate turning point in the timelines came when Ron got rich. Bonnie was hanging all over him because of his money, and he had a posse who really didn't care about him. Then he lost the money and it all went back to normal. Tears were forming in Kim's luminous eyes. _I didn't lose him. He didn't turn his back on me!_

More adventures flashed before her eyes. Jealousy over Ron's friendship with Felix Renton, followed by Ron turning evil thanks to the Attitudinator. _Ron could have defeated me if Drakken hadn't repaired the Attitudinator. I would have had to fight my best friend! _Kim's almost insane jealousy over Yori came next, followed by Erik and Diablo night. _I tossed Ron to the side like he did to me. But he stuck by me. Why didn't I stick by him?_

Then came Erik's betrayal and the four words that changed everything. "Out there.... in here."

_Ron loves me?_ That thought filled her heart with a warmth that hadn't been there before. It grew more intense after she saw the kiss on the dance floor. The kaleidoscope if images continued. Ron joining the football team because he was afraid she would leave him, as well as dates and make out sessions. Kim's mission gear getting trashed and the problems she had finding a new set came next, and Ron's suggestion to talk to the Fashionistas. _Wait, that's the same outfit Dawn's wearing._

Next was the sitch with the Memory Recovery Machine, and five words that changed things even more. "I think I love you." That was revised only a few days later when Kim visited Ron while his parents and Hana were out. "I don't _think_ I love you, Ron Stoppable," she told him. "I know I do. I love you with all my heart and soul." The kiss that followed led to them making love for the first time.

The slide show advanced to graduation and Ron's defeat of the aliens. Then came Kim's invitation to join the Global Justice Fast Track program which Ron encouraged. Again the dynamic was changed. Kim left and Ron was the hero, even if he didn't get the credit he deserved. Those weren't the only changes in store. Not long after that they had to deal with the return of Erik. But there was a bright spot in the most perfectly romantically weird marriage proposal ever.

The images came faster now; Erik's defeat, Kim and Ron's new house, the wedding, and the Lorwardians' return. Kim was screaming Ron's name in her mind. Her brain felt like it was going to explode. _Too much. There's too much! It hurts! Help me, Ron! RON!!!!!!_

"ROOOOOONNNNNNNNN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" The glow faded and Kim collapsed on the ground. She was deathly still.

----

Bonnie Rockwaller blasted through the mansion like a force of nature. Her brow was set, her eyes were cold, and her fists were clenched. _"STOPPABLE!"_ he shrieked. "You get out here right now!"

Ron had been both dreading and looking forward to this. "What seems to be the problem, Bon-Bon?" he asked as he came out of his game room.

"The problem is that I found this really cute diamond necklace and earrings that I just so have to have. And then my credit card gets declined, and when I call the bank, they said that you had my limit slashed to like, twenty bucks!"

"You're lucky I let you keep the card!" Ron shot back. "You spend my cash like it's going out of style! And what do you do in return?"

"I show up with you to parties so people don't think you're the total loser that you really are!"

"And you ditch me for the first hottie you see." Ron crossed his arms. "You're right, Bonnie, I am a loser. I'm a loser for keeping a leech like you around and chasing off the best friend I ever had in my life!"

The Supreme Empress watched the exchange with a little concern. _It looks like Ronnie's gonna need another dose of the hypnotic strobe. This little habit he has of breaking free of my control is getting really old._

"Well then, why don't you go crawling back to her?!" Bonnie demanded.

"I think I will!" Ron yelled. "For all I know she might even take me back! So you can just get out of here! Get your stuff and leave. I want you gone!"

"People will think you're a total loser without me, Stoppable. You're gonna regret this."

"Oh no," Ron smiled. "I regret ever listening to you in the first place. I regret the fact that I was happier before I had money. But most of all, I regret pushing KP out of my life. She wouldn't mooch off me the way you do. On second thought, leave now. I'll have your stuff sent to you." Ron pulled a cell phone out of his pocket and hit a button. A burly looking security guard came up the stairs in response to his employer's page.

"What can I do for you, Mr. Stoppable," the man asked in a polite voice.

"Get her out of here, would you, Jeremy?" Ron ordered.

"Sorry, Ms. Rockwaller," Jeremy said. "Actually, no I'm not. The boss should've done this years ago." He reached for Bonnie's arm, but she quickly evaded his grasp.

"Don't touch me, you Neanderthal!" she screamed. Bonnie started storming towards the main entrance, but then stopped. "I'll get you for this, loser!" she yelled over her shoulder.

Ron gave the retreating brunette a smug look. "Just so you know, I'm canceling your credit card, and I'm changing the locks and the security codes. So don't think of coming back. Oh, and I had Roma crunch the numbers. We figure you owe me about three point eight million dollars. If you don't want me to take you to court over it, I suggest you back off and leave me alone!"

_Good for you, Ron,_ the benevolent part of the Empress's mind thought. The more dominant malevolent aspect, however, was fuming. It was a good thing for her that the compliance chip was almost fully integrated with her hypnotic strobe. This was the last time he would betray her.

_You're done, Ron. You just don't know it yet. You belong to me, just like the other you belonged to me back home. Maybe that's what I'll do with every version of you I find; make you into my loyal servants._

_----_

Kim was only slightly aware of her surroundings. She thought she felt two pairs of strong yet gentle hands helping her into a booth. Her mind was a jumbled mess of memories from two different lives. Which one was real, or were they both real? Was she Kim Possible or Kim Stoppable? It was that last question that ran through her mind before she blacked out.

"Do you think it worked?" Dawn Stoppable asked as her aunt helped Kim lay down on the long seat.

"I hope so, Dawnie," Hana replied. "For all our sakes."


	5. Chapter 5

_Disney owns the characters; I'm just taking them for a test drive._

_----_

Her head was spinning. Memories of conflicting events were flashing past her mind's eye. _What really happened?_ she asked herself. _It couldn't have happened both ways.... could it?_

She was momentarily distracted. She thought she heard someone calling to her. It was a quiet voice; it almost sounded a million miles away. Who was calling to her? Were they calling to her? They were asking for their sister, their mother and their aunt. She had no children, nieces or nephews, so the last two couldn't possibly be calling to her. But the first one; could it be the Tweebs?

She heard it more clearly this time. No. They couldn't be asking for her. It was a woman's voice asking for her sister, and she had no sisters; only brothers.

"Sis, are you okay?" the voice said, much more clearly. "Sis it's Hana. Can you hear me?"

_Hana? She's Ron's baby sister, isn't she? No, she couldn't be. Ron was an only child. But, his 'rents adopted her our senior year....... didn't they?_

"Aunt Kim?" another voice said. "It's Joey. I'm gonna try to sit you up."

She was no one's aunt, but she did know a Joey. _But he's only a year old. This guy sounds like a teenager. Wait. No. Joey can't be here. Shego and Drakken didn't go straight, did they? They never had a baby. This is so frustrating! What's real?_

"Easy now, Sis," the voice called Hana said. "Can you open your eyes?"

The darkness of Kim's world was shattered by ribbons of light that crept in through her slightly parted eyelids. When her vision cleared, she saw a young Japanese woman. "Yori?" Kim asked, not recognizing the girl. _No, the smile is all wrong. It's a little more mischevious than Yori's. But the hair and the headband look so much like hers. Could it be... _"Hana?"

Kim was wrapped in a warm embrace. "Welcome back, Big Sister," the girl happily said. "You have no idea how much I've missed you."

Comprehension finally hit Kim's rattled brain, and she held Hana close to her. "Oh God! Han!? What happened? Why are you.... grown up?"

Hana pulled away and looked Kim in the eyes. "I'm from fourteen years in the future, Sis. There's some bad stuff going down. Time got all messed up."

"I kind of remember," Kim said, rubbing her temples. "I'm just so.... confused! I rememeber things happening that shouldn't have."

"You're remembering events from this timeline, and from the real one, Aunt Kim," Joey Lipsky said. "Tempus said that you and Uncle Ron might be disoriented after you got put back to normal."

Kim looked at the young man before her, but instead saw she a cute little one year old boy. She reached out and pulled the boy into a hug. "I knew you'd grow up too fast, Joey! And it seems like you have your mother's fashion sense. I assume the green and blue is for both of your 'rents."

"You assume right, Aunt Kim," Joey smiled. "We were starting to think you'd never come around."

Kim looked at her nearly adult godson and shook her head. "So you're dating Hana now?" she asked. Joey nodded and took Hana's hand. "I really like that idea! Now what's this about you having a little sister?"

"Lisa," Joey said. "She's six weeks younger than RJ. You and my mom were pregnant at the same time. It drove Dad and Uncle Ron crazy!"

"I wish Lisa was here right now," Ron Stoppable, Jr. said in a tone that almost sounded like longing. Joey and Hana both shot him confused looks.

"You hate my sister."

"That was ten years ago!" RJ protested. "Besides, she can walk through walls. She'd come in handy when we try to get into my dad's place."

"Suuuuure," Dawn teased. "Just keep telling yourself that, RJ. You're crushing on her and you know it."

"No I'm not!"

Hana saw Kim's jaw drop when she set eyes on RJ and Dawn. "Sister, allow me to introduce you to my nephew RJ Stoppable, and my niece Dawn Stoppable."

Kim stood up and walked over to Dawn and RJ. Every instinct she had was screaming at her, telling her that these two were of her blood. As crazy as it sounded, she _knew _they were hers. "My babies," Kim said in a quiet voice before grabbing them both and holding onto them for dear life. "Oh my God, you're my babies! I feel like I've missed your whole lives."

"You'll be there for us, Momma, don't worry." Dawn was crying tears of relief now instead of anguish. "We just need to get Daddy back and put things right. Then everything will be okay."

"That's the other problem," Joey muttered.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Kim asked.

"We scoped out my Bro's pad," Hana said. "It looks pretty fortified. I don't think even my super ninja skills could get us in."

Kim smirked at her little sister-in-law. "Who said anything about sneaking in? Ron's my old best friend. Why sneak in when we can just ring the doorbell?"

----

It had taken a lot longer than it should have, but Shego finally breached the Stoppable Mansion's outer perimeter. Even though he had been out of the save the world game for several years, the sidekick was again near the top of Shego's list of people she'd like to fry. _I've heard of random, but some of the places he had those cameras hidden were just insane! Motion sensors in rose bushes? Cameras hidden in fake fruit hanging from the trees? How many spy movies has this kid seen?_

Shego entered the expansive house on the second floor. She found herself in an obviously unused room. All she could see were four bare walls. "I guess he doesn't get much company," the green hued thief mused. "May as well see what's on this floor and work my way down."

----

If misery loved company, then Ron Stoppable was determined to rob it of its desired prize. Except for Rufus, and occasionally Bonnie, Ron's house was completely empty in the evening hours. Not even his security guards lived in the main residence; they had a separate house on another part of the grounds. Ron preferred to be alone. _I messed up every other friendship I had. Why keep people around?_

That's why Ron was more than a little annoyed when his _Bricks of Fury: Ultimately Furious Brick Bashing Brick-a-Thon _was interrupted by the doorbell. "That better not be Bonnie wanting to weasel her way back in," Ron grumbled to Rufus, who was perched on his shoulder.

"Hnk, no Bonnie," the naked mole rat growled.

When Ron opened the door, he was presented with a real sight for sore eyes. There was Kim Possible, in full mission gear, standing on his front porch. "Hey, Ron," she said nervously. "It's, uh, it's been a long time. Can we come in?" With her were four teenagers Ron had never seen; including a young man wearing a blue and green variant of Shego's costume.

"Uh, what's with the entourage and the Shego impersonator?" Ron nervously asked.

"These are friends of mine," Kim said. "And don't worry about Nogo. He's on our side." She tried really hard not to stare. This wasn't the Ron Stoppable she'd known her whole life. His eyes were sunken and circled by black rings, and his face was pale and drawn. It was all Kim could to to keep from just grabbing onto him and hugging him until he was better. But no, he wouldn't understand and would probably freak out.

Ron looked the young man over. "Nogo? What kind of a name is Nogo?"

Joey wanted to smack his own forehead. Ron had asked him that very question when he first got the uniform. "It's a long story that you probably wouldn't believe. If it makes it any easier, you can just call me Joey."

"Uh. Okay." Ron stepped aside and let the newcomers file in. He noticed that two of them were dressed in his old mission gear, and that they both had naked mole rats. "Gee, Kim, I didn't know that you replaced me like that. I mean, I know I up and quit, but still...."

"Ron," Kim said, before losing her nerve. _What am I supposed to say exactly? "Guess what? This isn't the way the world is supposed to be. You're not rich, we're supposed to be married, and two of these people are our kids from twenty four years in the future." Yeah, that'll go over really well._

"Broth.... er, Mr. Stoppable," Hana stammered. "All of your questions will be answered if you put this on." She had pulled a stone fragment necklace form her pocket. She was about to hand it to her brother when she saw a flash of movement out of the corner of her eye. It was inhumanly quick; imperceptible to everyone but her. _I have a bad feeling about that._

When she looked back at Ron, his face had changed. His tired eyes were now dull, and his face was contorted into the mask of a vile sneer. "Why should I put that on? What is it? Another tracking device like that chip you had Wade put in me? Forget it, Kimberly; I don't need it, or you!"

Everyone but Hana backed off. "This isn't him," the super ninja said.

"How would you know?!" Ron demanded. "You don't even know me!" Rufus saw what was going on and quickly got as far away from his person as he could. Both Roxy and Rachel, Rufus's future descendants, followed him. Rachel was carrying a smaller stone fragment in her teeth.

"I know you better than you think," Hana replied. The Mystical Monkey Power was screaming at her, warning her that he wasn't acting of his own accord. Then there was that flash of movement. She needed to coax whatever that was back out into the open.

"I don't want to fight, Ron," Kim said, "I just want to talk."

"We got nothing to talk about, Kim! You didn't want me to be bigger than you, and now you want to pound me back down!"

"No, Ron," Kim pleaded. "I never wanted that! I love you!"

"No you don't," Ron growled. "I mean, if you do, you sure got a funny way of showing it! Or did you forget the whole Spirit Dance closet thing?! Or all the times you went Mankey mad? You never cared about me!"

Hana's mind was racing now. _That movement came before my brother's freak out._ She looked down at her hands and remembered all she knew about pressure points. _I don't want to do this to him, but I don't have a choice!_

Before Hana could strike, a burst of green incandescence exploded in front of her. "Can't you guys quiet down! I'd like to rob the joint in peace!"

Joey silently muttered one of his mom's favorite expletives under his breath when he saw the source of the outburst. "I am so dead."

Shego looked at the boy and snarled. "Oh you are so beyond dead, kid!" She leapt into the air, did a flip, and landed in front of the young man with her fists blazing. "Blue? You added blue to that? First you rip me off, and then you add blue to it? Oh, when I'm done with you you'll _wish_ I'd killed you!"

Kim could have handled Ron freaking out very easily, but add a tweaked Shego to the mix, and the whole sitch turned sideways. "Ron! Get to cover!"

"Oh, so the great Kim Possible doesn't think I can handle myself against Shego, does she?"

"I never said that!"

"I'm not the loser everyone thinks I am!" Ron pulled a remote control from his pocket and hit a series of buttons. A low hum started to come from the walls as they began to emit a soft yellow glow. Shego's plasma started to wane, then completely fizzled out. "How do you like that? Custom made energy dampeners! I had that specially designed for you, Shego."

A feral sneer crossed the green woman's face. With an animalistic yell, she charged at Ron, who just stood his ground. At the last minute, he ducked out of the way and Shego was captured in an energy net. "Stoppable let me go!"

"Let me think about that for a ........ no, not happening."

"This thing can't hold me forever," Shego growled.

"Sure it can! It's drawing its power right from you," Ron gloated. "I spared no expense on this one." He looked back over at Kim and the others. "As for the rest of you, I want you out of my house!"

Hana saw it again; that brief flash of movement. It was right next to her brother this time. With MMP enhanced speed, Hana sprung into action. She dove forward and grabbed a metal clad figure. The energy net holding Shego shut down as Hana brought this mystery figure to the ground. A crushed remote control, the very control unit Ron had been holding just seconds before, skittered across the floor.

"You were saying, buffoon?" Shego said, her hands already alight.

"Oh! I see how it is! You had to bring company along! You knew the Ron-man had it going on with his bondigety security system, so you had to have help!"

"Hey, she didn't come with me." Shego looked over at the armored woman, who Hana was still struggling with. "I'd offer to help, but I have a house to plunder."

"Were you talking to Hana or whoever she's fighting?" Joey asked.

"Does it matter?" Shego grinned at the long haired boy. "That reminds me, I still have a score to settle with you!" She hurled glowing green bursts of flaming pain at Joey. He barely got out of the way in time.

"I don't want to do this!" he insisted.

"Well that's too bad, because I do!" Shego went on the offensive. Joey only hoped he could keep out of her reach long enough to come up with something.

----

In the far corner of the room, Rufus finally awoke. He had a small piece of a stone statue around his neck, and two young female naked mole rats surrounding him. They wore stones just like it on tiny collars. They started squeaking at him excitedly and telling a story that made absolutely no sense.

----

"I could use some help here!" Hana yelled, just before being thrown to the side. Her opponent stood reveald as a woman in head to toe black and silver body armor. A black cape flowed behind her; clasped to her triangular shoulder guards by what looked like some sort of mini cannons. Her head was encased in a seemless silver helmet with an opaque red visor for a faceplate. Around her head was something that could only be described as some sort of crown.

"How did you do that?" the digitized voice of the intruder asked. "I was only back in phase for less than a second!"

"I'm special," Hana gloated. "And less than a second was all I needed. My senses are so juiced up on Mystical Monkey Power that I could've seen you with my eyes closed."

"Who are you?" RJ demanded.

"Me?" the armor clad woman asked. "I am your Supreme Empress, and you will bow down before me!"

"Bow down before this!" Kim yelled, right before launching into an attack. The Empress blocked every punch and kick with no effort at all.

"Really now, I know you can do better than that," the Empress taunted. "Or perhaps Dr. Drakken and Bonnie Rockwaller were right when they said you weren't all that. Maybe I made a mistake in coming to you first."

"What do you want?" Dawn asked, trying to buy Joey enough time to fight off his mother and come to their aid.

"Just to make sure that Kim here reaches her full potential," the Empress said in a an offhand sort of way. "And if that means taking out a buffoon or two, then so be it." Several beam emitters deployed from her right gauntlet. "Do you know what this is? It's a hypnotic strobe. It comes in really handy. How do you think I got Stoppable here to ditch you and take up with Bonnie? Or how I got his parents to throw him out?"

Kim growled. "That was you?"

"Oh yes! And now that I've added the compliance chip to the strobe, he'll never break free." The Empress glanced over at Ron, who was now staring blanky at her. "Ron, these people are threatening me. Protect your Empress."

"As you commmand, my Empress," he replied dully. He positioned himself between the Empress and Kim.

----

Joey Lipsky was living his worst nightmare; fighting his own mother. He was never the martial arts wiz his mom was and he knew it. He'd learned a little Tai Sheng Pek Kwar from his godfather and Sensei Yori, but Joey was nowhere near Shego's league when it came to unarmed combat. Instead, he'd learned how to handle a whip in order to make better offensive use of his vines. _Okay, time to bite the bullet,_ he thought. _Oh man I am so dead! _Joey stopped dodging and let his vines spring free form the backs of his hands.

Shego halted her attack. "Okay, that's new. Where'd you get those?"

"My old man got doused in a super plant potion before I was conceived," Joey explained. "It messed with his DNA a little. I'm just glad I don't sprout big yellow flower petals around my head like he does."

"Sounds to me like your dad's a real pansy," Shego quipped.

"Nah. More like a marigold." Joey snapped his vines like whips. "I don't want to do this!"

"Too bad, junior, because we're doing it!" Shego resumed her attack, herding Joey to where she wanted him with strategically placed plasma bursts.

Joey knew this trick. It was one of the first tactics she taught him. That didn't make it easy to avoid, though. He leapt and dodged as fast as he could, narrowly avoiding Shego's blasts. The tip of his ponytail was singed by a plasma burst he barely ducked away from. _I don't know how much more of this I can take. I need to get out of this, like now! Maybe I can use her own tactic against her and turn the tables._ Joey went where his mom wanted him to go, but when she moved in for the kill, he made his vines snake around her arms and legs, immobilizing her.

"You can move those things?!" Shego shrieked. "Oh, you are so beyond dead! When I get done with you...."

Joey shook his head. "Sorry, Mom, but I can't let you keep doing this."

"Okay, that's it! Now it's on!" Shego yelled. "I am no one's mother!"

"I hate to break it to you, but you are my mom," Joey argued. "Your name is Sheila Gordon. Your parents are Joe and Lucy Gordon. You named me after my grandfather! I call myself Nogo, but my real name is Joseph Lipsky!"

Shego's face went sickly pale. "Lipsky? You mean me... Drakken... we did..."

Joey rolled his eyes. "Unless every biology teacher I ever had was lying to me and the whole 'birds and bees' talk you and Dad had with me was a load of garbage, then yes, that's how Lisa I got here."

Shego turned another shade of pale. "Lisa?" _Don't tell me there's more......_

"My sister," Joey grunted as he fought his mother's constant struggling. "Your daughter."

_Oh God no. No no no no no..... _"Please tell me you're twins."

"No, she's younger than me by about five years."

Shego tried to slice through the vines with her clawed gloves. "You mean me... Drakken... twice?"

"More than! You once told me that you guys practiced my conception before you got married."

"Whoa, too much information, kid!"

"Then there were all the sleepovers you let me have with Hana when we were kids." Joey's own wicked sense of humor started to shine through. "Come to think of it, Dad always looked tired and you were always in a really good mood when I got home the next morn-"

"Stop it! That's _ENOUGH!!!!!!"_

"Yeah, I guess it is." Joey tightened the grip his vines had on his mother. "I just hope you don't ground me till I'm sixty for this. I'm sorry, Mom, but this is the only way." He sent a continuous jolt of electricity through the vines and into his mother. She screamed in pain as the volts travelled through her. Joey closed his eyes and a lone tear streaked out. After an agonizing second or two, he cut the power and lowered his mother's prone form to the floor. She was lightly groaning.

"Nice trick," she mumbled. "Too bad I have to strangle you with your own vines."

Joey crouched by Shego's side and pulled another necklace out of the pouch on his leg. "I just hope that, when you're in your right mind again, you don't carry a grudge." He hesitated a bit before tying the cord around Shego's neck. "I love you, Mom. I need you to come back to us."

----

"Why me?" Kim demanded of her armored oppressor. "What do you want with me?"

"It's not just you, Kim," the Empress said. "It's all of you. Every single Kim Possible from every alternate timeline. An army of Kim Possibles; all in service to me! If one of you can do anything, imagine a legion of you! All of reality would be mine."

Kim looked at her now seemingly mindless best friend. "And Ron?"

"He's the catalyst to nudge you in the right direction. He has no real value."

Hana and Kim both caught the Empres's voice breaking when she said that.

"Look, I really don't care what you want," Kim said. "I just want my old life back; starting with my husband!"

"Husband?" The Empress adjusted her visor to pick up exotic particles. She saw that Kim's friends were all bathed in chronitons, and that those same particles were now streaming out of a source under Kim's mission shirt. "You've been reset," the Empress observed. "You're back to how you were before I changed this reality." She did an in depth scan on Hana and the others. "I don't know Miss Monkey Power here. But the guy with Shego is her son, and the other two are your kids!" Her scan zeroed in on RJ and Dawn. "Your kids with _him!"_ Her mind started to scream. _That's not fair! That's NOT FAIR!!!!!!!_

"You are really starting to get on my nerves," the Empress growled. "All I've been trying to do is help you! To make you better! And you've fought me every step of the way. And why? For him?" She glared at Ron, who was standing motionless in front of her awaiting his next orders. What happened next the Empress didn't expect; Hana quickly rushed at her brother and clamped her hands down where his neck and shoulders meet, causing him to black out. "What did you just do!?" the Empress demanded as Hana dragged Ron's limp body away.

"I got my brother away from you!" Hana yelled. "No one messes with my family and gets away with it!" At that moment, a trio of naked mole rats jumped onto Ron's unconscious form. Rufus was carrying another one of those time necklaces.

The Empress simply scowled behind her faceplate. "I've had it with this. You want to waste your life away with Stoppable? It's no skin off my nose. You're a waste of my time. Perhaps the next timeline's Kim Possible will be more receptive to my offer."

No sooner had the Empress spoken, than a bright blue light erupted out of nowhere. All eyes turned and saw Ron Stoppable fully enveloped in a bright blue light. His eyes burned as brightly as a blue sun, as did the stone fragment hagning around his neck. As he slowly rose off the ground, the room was filled with the sound of shrieking monkeys. Ron's mind opened, allowing the life experiences he'd been robbed of to surge in, and with those memories came the Mystical Monkey Power.

In Hana's mind's eye, she saw a spark begin to flare to life. It was a familiar spark; one she'd known since she was a baby. It was a spark she could see clearly through the glare of a supernova. She smiled. "You're in trouble now, lady! My big brother is back in the game!"

As quickly as it appeared, the light vanished, and Ron was again laying motionless on the floor. RJ and Dawn were at their father's side in the blink of an eye.

"Enjoy your little victory, Kim," the Empress growled. "Not like it'll do you any good. You're still stuck in the reality that I created!" The hypnotic strobe retracted back into one gauntlet, and a control panel deployed from the other one. "Ever heard of the pan temporal vortex inducer? I added it to my suit a while ago. It came in handy when I was deposed. It's how I've been jumping around time. So long, Possible. I'm sorry to say that you were such a disappointment to me. Maybe I'll come back when I'm done and see if you've redeemed yourself."

----

When Shego came to, she felt like she'd been kicked into the broadcast tower again. "That's the last time I eat Kimmie's cooking," she grumbled.

"Mom! Are you okay?"

Shego looked for the source of the voice, and saw a teenage boy with a face the same shape as Drew Lipsky's. It was a familiar face; one she had memorized every line and contour of every day since the day he was born. But this face was bigger, older. The eyes, though, those green blue eyes were the same as those belonging to her little boy. "It can't be...."

"It's me, Mom," Joey said. "It's Joey." He pulled the woman into a tight hug which she reluctantly returned. "I'm sorry I had to zap you, but you were trying to kill me!"

"But, you're only a year old!" Shego said, trying to wrap her head around it.

"Long story short, I'm from the future, and time got all whacked. Right now Aunt Kim has the bad guy cornered, but I don't know for how long. She needs our help, Mom."

"Some things never change," Shego said, struggling to her feet. "She always gets in way over her head."

----

"If you think we're just letting you walk, you're nuts!" Hana threatened.

"You have no choice in the matter, little girl," the Empress replied. "I'm the Supreme Empress; I can do what I please!"

"I think not!" A burst of green hit at the Empress's feet. Shego and Nogo confidently walked up to Kim and Hana. "You look like something out of one of the Buffoon's video games. Were all the good costumes taken at the Despot Depot?"

"I'd forgotten how sarcastic you could be, Shego," the Empress chuckled. "You could be quite amusing when you wanted to be. Too bad I had to have that sharp tongue of yours removed for defying me back home."

"Remove this!" Shego threw several large plasma blasts at the Empress. Her target merely raised her hand, creating a disc shaped barrier in front of her. "Please, Shego; you were the first person I took out. Did you really think I wouldn't have a way of negating your powers?"

"Try mine on for size!" Nogo again unleashed his vines and swung them towards the Empress. Since they were matter and not energy, they passed through the barrier like it wasn't there. The vines coiled around the Empress's arms, and Nogo let loose with his electrical powers, hoping to overload the armor's power systems.

"Is that supposed to impress me?" the Empress asked nonchalantly. "All you're doing is topping off my power cells."

Nogo tried to stop the flow of electricity, but he couldn't. It was almost as if the armor was drawing it out of him. He started to get weaker.

"Leave my guy alone!" Hana charged at the Empress and threw a few kicks at her; trying to get her to release Nogo. The Empress dodged as best she could with her arms tangled in Nogo's vines.

"You heard the lady!" Shego added, joining the fray. "Let go of my son!" She saw the pained look on Nogo's face and her heart broke. "I'm sorry about this, kiddo!" Using her clawed gloves, Shego sliced through Nogo's vines, severing them and the electrical circuit linking her son to the Empress. Hana quickly rushed to his side.

"Well, since I'm at full power, I suppose I should be going." The Empress again started to activate the PTVI. "I guess I should thank you, though. You've shown me what not to do." The Empress looked over and saw the future Stoppables helping their father into a sitting position. Part of her wanted to apologize and say goodbye, but that part was overridden by her rage. "Have fun with the loser family, Kim. It's too bad, really; you would have made one spankin' lieutenant."

The Empress pressed the final button and waited for the pan temporal vortex to open. Nothing happened. "Now what?"

"It looks like you're stuck here with the rest of us losers," Kim smirked. "Maybe Joey did more damage than you thought."

"No! All systems check out. Why isn't this working?"

"Because I am not letting it," another voice said. All heads turned to see a small Monkey dressed in a red kimono emerge from a small white doorway.

"And just who are you?" the Empress demanded.

"I am Tempus Simia; the time monkey. And you, Your Excellency, are not going anywhere."

----

_Author's Note:_

_Big thanks going out to Daccu65 for letting me use dialogue he'd come up with for the fight between Shego and Nogo. It was a hundred times better than what I'd already written. If you haven't already, check out his "To the Mat" series, his "Legacy" series, and his other stories; they're more than worth your time._


	6. Chapter 6

_Disney owns the characters, I'm just taking them for a test drive._

_----_

She was known to them only as the Supreme Empress. Before now she was a faceless adversary with a hidden agenda. She still was, really, since her face was hidden behind an opaque red faceplate. All that Team Possible knew for certain was that she had altered time to split up Kim and Ron, and that she was covered in high tech armor; armor that looked very familiar to Kim. But it wasn't the Empress that had Kim's attention right now, it was a small talking monkey that appeared out of nowhere. His clothing had changed more times than she could count in the span of just a few seconds.

"I am Tempus Simia," the monkey had said. "The time monkey. And you, Your Excellency, are not going anywhere."

"Who are you to tell me where I can and can't go, you filthy little animal?" the Empress demanded in her digitized voice.

"I am a part of time itself," Tempus said, "and as such I have negated the chronitons and tachyons emitted by your device. You are now trapped in this timeline until I decide you may leave." The monkey gave as much of a grin as his simian features would allow. "It is time for you to answer for your crimes, Empress."

"I'm above your laws," the Empress declared.

"Sorry, but I'm not buying," Kim added, ready to finish this. "To me you're just another super villain who needs to be taken down."

That cut the Empress deeply. "I thought you of all people would understand why I'm doing this. You've fought for years to keep the world safe from super villains. Well I found a better way. I saved my world by taking it over! But then I was deposed by those ingrates I saved. You were supposed to help me regain power! In return, I would have given you this world to rule as you saw fit!"

"Uh, you have that time travel thingie," Dawn Stoppable, Kim and Ron's daughter from twenty four years in the future said. "Why not just do that reset thing and start from scratch?"

"Don't give the bad guys ideas, Dawnie," her brother RJ growled. "Remember what happened with Dad and the Seniors?"

"Hey, Tres isn't that bad, is he?" Dawn asked. "Or Rita?"

"Who are Tres and Rita?" Kim asked, a little annoyed with her offspring for acting like their dad at an inopportune time.

"Senior Senor the Third and Senorita Senior," RJ replied. "But I'm not talking about them, Dawn, I'm talking about Junior and his dad!"

"Oh. Yeah," Dawn sheepishly replied. "Sorry."

"I'd thought of resetting my timeline," the Empress conceded, "but then they wouldn't learn what a bad idea it is to betray me."

"Aw man," a shaky voice groaned. "I was having this bizarre dream." Ron Stoppable's eyes opened the rest of the way, and he started to freak. "It wasn't a dream was it?" Rufus, who had scampered back onto his person's shoulder, squeaked to him that it indeed wasn't. Ron looked around and saw the standoff in his main hall. "This would be so cool if it wasn't the last thing we were ever gonna see."

"It's good to have you back, Ron," Kim smiled at her restored husband. "But keep down. The hangover from getting your timeline realigned is rough."

"How touching," the Empress gagged. "I'll say one thing, your taste in men leaves a lot to be desired in this reality."

"Don't go harshing on my hubby," Kim warned.

"You know, this is all really fascinating," Shego said in an irritated voice, "but I have a suddenly grown up son here, and I'd really like to know why. Not to mention I'd like to know why I'm suddenly back in the super villain game!" Shego's hands flared to life. "So can we please just cut her out of that tin can and get on with our lives?"

That's when Ron noticed the teenage Asian girl in front of him. "Yori, is that you?"

"No," she replied. "It's me, Bro. It's Hana. Turns out Yori and I look a lot like our grandmother."

"Holy cannoli!" Ron exclaimed. "You're all grown up. I pulled a Rip Van Wrinkle and fell asleep for years and years."

"That's Rip Van Winkle, Buffoon," Shego corrected, "and no you didn't. Now if you don't mind, we need to take out the trash, so do us all a favor and either keep quiet or go monkey style on her!"

"It is over, Empress," Tempus said. "Your ability to travel through time and hide within the ticks of a clock has been removed. You have much to answer for."

"I don't care if you are a part of time," the Empress declared. "I can do as I please! And if that means I want to rewrite a timeline to suit my own needs, then that's what I'll do."

"You prevented people from being born!" the diminutive monkey screeched. "Entire family lines were disrupted. Instead of allowing new timestreams to branch off with each divergent outcome as they should have, you forced time to conform to your will. None should have that power. Not even me! Those are the powers of a god."

"Supreme Goddess," the Empress said to herself. "A little grandiose, but it does have a real nice ring to it. Maybe I should absorb you into my weapon systems!"

A siphon devise deployed from the Empress's right shoulder cannon, but when she tried to get a lock on the time monkey, she saw nothing. "I have no physical form, Excellency. I am but an image; an illusion. You cannot harm that which is not really there."

"But we can harm you!" Shego added, ready to pounce.

"Sheila, Sheila, Sheila," the Empress chided. "You never learn."

"How do you know my real name?"

"I know everything about you, Sheila Danielle Gordon. I downloaded all of Team Go's files right before I destroyed Go Tower." The Empress saw the horrified look on Shego and Nogo's faces. "No one died, if that's what you're afraid of. I so don't go in for wholesale slaughter. I just thought that my Go City Palace should be built on Go Island. I mean, it does have the best view. And don't worry about your brothers. They make excellent servants."

Ron finally got to his feet. He was still really confused, but he was getting really mad, too. He kept looking at his left hand, at where his wedding ring should be. It wasn't the fact that his ring wasn't there that bothered him, it was the fact that his ring didn't exist. "You took it all away," he said. "You took away everything we were; everything we'd gone through together. Why?" His eyes were now glowing blue, and an aura was starting to form around him.

"You've been reset, too," the Empress sighed. "And you got your powers back. Just perfect. I went through all that trouble to take them away from you, and now you're all monkeyed up again! You've caused me nothing but trouble, Ron. You got in the way, you stood against me when you should have stood with me, then you escaped after I'd captured you, and now this. I don't know why I even put up with you!" The Empress lightly shook her head as her inner argument started again. _Oh yes you do! _she yelled at herself,

Now all members of Team Possible, present and future, were surrounding the Empress. "There's nowhere to go," Dawn Stoppable said.

"So why don't you just give up?" her brother RJ added.

"Before this gets messy," Nogo said with an angry grin. Electricity was surging down his vines.

"I underestimated you," the Empress said with a chuckle. "It's been a while since I had a real challenge. I almost forgot how much fun it could be. Fine. I admit it. You win for now. But I'll be back for a rematch, so you'd better be ready to bring it!" The Empress's cape split down the middle and retreated into the armor's shoulder guards. A pair of booster jets deployed from her back, with a pair of stabilizer wings unfolding on either side. Her shoulder mini cannons blasted a hole in the nearest wall, and the rockets shot her through it at breakneck speeds. "Don't let your guard down, kids! I'll be back sooner than you think!"

The assembled heroes stared at the smoldering hole in the wall. "Will someone please tell me what the heck is going on?!" Ron demanded.

Kim turned around and looked her man in the face. He still looked tired, but that fire was back in his eyes. When she saw that, all she could do was rush into his waiting arms. When their lips met, she felt whole at last.

They were pulled from their own little world when a shy voice asked, "Daddy?"

Kim smiled at the blonde girl. "Ron, I'd like you to meet Dawn Stoppable, and Ron Stoppable, Jr . They're going to be our children." Kim smiled even more when she saw Ron's jaw drop. "Come here, kids," Kim said in a warm voice. Both Dawn and her brother rushed in to embrace their parents.

Hana watched the scene, and then saw Shego looking Nogo over. "At least some things are starting to look right again."

----

Ron Stoppable sat with Kim in his game room. Although there were a lot of questions that still needed answers, it was decided that Kim and Ron needed some alone time. Ron sat in silence, staring at his left hand. "It's all gone, KP," he said. "The last three years, us, it's all gone."

"I know, Ron," Kim said in a sad voice.

"I'll bet someone's living in our house."

"Probably," Kim agreed. "But this mansion isn't so bad."

"I wanna sell it," Ron said. "I never really wanted it in the first place. It was Bonnie's idea. At least, I think it was. I don't know what's real and what's not right now."

"Give it time, honey," Kim said. "It just takes your brain a while to adjust to remembering two different timelines. We'll figure something out, Ron."

"Your 'rents don't like me much," Ron pointed out. "Your dad wanted to put me into a fusion reactor after the way our friendship crashed and burned, remember? And I don't think he was kidding." Ron buried his face in his hands. "It figures, y'know? I marry the girl of my dreams, and some armored fruitcake messes with time and takes it all away."

"Look, Ron, let's beat the Empress first. Then we'll figure us out. You never know, maybe my 'rents will forgive you after they hear about that hypnotic strobe."

Ron wasn't convinced. "Sure, KP. But you still have to go back to school soon."

"It might not come to that," another voice said. Ron Stoppable, Jr. was standing in the doorway. "You never know, Dad, maybe Tempus can set things right."

"There's no guarantee you'll ever be born, RJ," Ron said. "I have no idea where Hana is here, and I know for a fact that Joey will never be born! This timeline is worse than Wannweep ever was." He looked up at Kim. "At least you have a good life, KP. You're going to Harvard, dating big shot hotties.... you don't have it so bad."

"I don't have a major declared," Kim pointed out. "I have no idea what I want to do. Well, I didn't before I got my memories back. And don't start on the hotties. None of them had any sunstance. Most of my relationships don't last more than two dates. They're not right for me. You are. You're the only man I've ever loved, Ron, and now that I have you back, I'm not gonna let you go." She kissed Ron's cheek. "Now listen to your son. Maybe this whole thing can be put back the way to was."

Kim sat silent for a moment and mustered her courage. The talk of hotties had brought it up, and she had to know. "Speaking of dating other people.... did you and Bonnie ever, you know......... get intimate?"

A look of terror and disgust formed on Ron's face. "Eeeeewwwww! Are you kidding? She didn't even like taking my arm when we went out! She said my very presence made her physically ill, and she was only hanging around me because I was rich. Which was just fine by me, let me tell you. The Ron-man's not into casual flings."

"Thank God for that," Kim and RJ said in unison.

"Jinx!" RJ declared. "You owe me a soda after I'm born, Mom."

Ron smiled and took a good long look at RJ. Were it not for the red hair and green eyes, Ron would think he was looking in a mirror. "Well, you look like you turned out all right," Ron finally said. "I've been kinda afraid of what kind of dad I'll be."

RJ sat down next to his parents. "You did fine, Dad. You learned what not to do from Grammie and Gramps. You never once said the words 'This is my way of tellling you' to Dawn and me when we were growing up. And Mom always said you took to fatherhood like Rufus to cheese." RJ smiled at his folks. "I was kind of a surprise. Mom never planned on spending her last semester of law school taking care of a newborn. She always said that, had you not stepped up, she wouldn't have graduated or passed the Bar exam. You do fine, Dad. Dawn and I are living proof. Now come on, Tempus is waiting for us."

----

The being known as Tempus Simia, now clad in a simple gi, floated before Shego and the members of Team Possible. Dawn was sititng right next to her father, who was still trying to make sense of the sitch.

"So, are we close at all?" Ron asked his daughter.

"So close, Dad," Dawn smiled. "We do a lot of stuff together. I mean, who else would watch _Captain Constellation _reruns with you and Grandpa James but your bondigetty daughter?"

"You like _Captain Constellation?"_

"Best show ever!" Dawn proclaimed, right before she and her dad both declared that "Rockets are go!"

"Ron, Dawnie, heads in the game," Kim scolded.

"Sorry, KP/Mom," they said.

"Well, it's nice to see that some things are back to normal," RJ chuckled.

"Why don't you start from the beginning, Tempus," Hana suggested.

"My pleasure, Han," he said. "First of all, I wish to thank you, Master Ronald. Because of you, I am alive."

"Huh?" Ron asked, scratching his head. "I'm even more confused now."

"Agreed," Kim said. "And how come you have the same name as the statue we're all wearing pieces of?"

"That is quite simple, Lady Kimberly. I used to be that very statue."

----

The Supreme Empress came in for a landing just inside the Middleton city limits. She was seething in anger behind her faceplate; incensed that Kim had turned down her offer, and that yet another Ron Stoppable had betrayed her. _When I get my hands on him, _she thought angrily. _And the worst part is, I'm stuck here! Unless I find a new source of chronitons, that is._ The Empress quickly set her armor's sensor array to search for the illusive particles. "I know this world has a pan temporal vortex inducer. Once I find that, I'll be able to get out of this backwater timestream." _But first, I think I need to teach little Kimmie-cub a lesson._

_----_

Everyone sat in silence as Tempus told his story. "It all began on the first day of your junior year of high school," he had said, and then he launched into his story. He told them of how Dr. Drakken, Shego, Lord Monkey Fist and Duff Killigan had banded together in an attempt to stop Kim's heroic career from ever starting, and how Team Possible was broken up when Ron's family unexpectedly moved to Norway.

"But that never happened," Kim had argued.

"Yeah, I hate meat cakes!"

"Please, be patient and all will be made clear," Tempus told them. He continued, relaying to them how his original form, the Tempus Simia staute, was taken by Monkey Fist so that the villains could travel in time, and how an evolved naked mole rat from the future named Rufus 3000 had come back in time to gain Kim's help in defeating the Supreme One; the despotic ruler the future he hailed from.

Tempus told them of all the twists and turns, and all of the unsuccessful attempts to alter history. Finally, he told them of how Shego was revealed as the Supreme One, and how the future was saved when Ron accidentally broke the statue, causing the timeline to be reset to before the adventure began.

"That explains a few things, Mom," Joey joked, earning him a swat upside the back if his head.

"Don't sass your mother," Shego warned him.

"It was then that my energies were released," Tempus said, "and they joined with time itself. I became self aware, and I became a part of time. It was all because of you, Master Ronald. I have a mind of my own because of your actions."

"Is that why you're helping us?" Kim asked.

"Partially. Self preservation is also a factor. These fluctuations in time disrupt me. I grow weaker with each reset. My original plan, Lady Kimberly, was to pluck you and the Master from time, along with my new young friends, so as to protect you from the alterations to the timeline. Unfortunately, due to the continued temporal manipulation, I was too weak to do so. I was only able to save your children, Joseph, and the Han."

"So you sent them here to help us," Ron said, finally getting with the program.

"Yes," Tempus replied.

"What about that Empress lady?" Shego asked. "What's her damage?"

"I wish I could answer that," Tempus said. "She is from a parallel timeline, and as such, she is a random element in time that I cannot sense. I would need for her and her counterpart from this timeline to be in physical contact before I could read who she is. Even I have my limits."

"I know I'll regret asking this," Kim said, "but what kind of limits?"

"I could not manifest in the physical world without the Monkey Master to anchor myself to," he answered. "Also, I cannot randomly jump through time now that I have entered its flow. In my weakened state, I find that I must carefully choose what feats I perform. My strength is not infinite here, and I am saving the bulk of my power for the completion of our mission. I could reenter the timestream to replenish myself, but with how much time has altered, I fear I would not be able to return to the precise moment that I left. I would be leaving you to face the Empress alone."

"Great," Kim muttered.

Ron let out a pained moan. He felt another migraine coming on.

RJ saw him rubbing his temples. "Dad, you okay?"

"I don't think so," Ron groaned. "It feels like I have Junior singing at his worst on a million high powered amps all cranked up to eleven. I thought you said I was reset, or whatever! If I'm back to normal, why am I still getting these headaches?"

Kim quickly went to Ron's side and took him in a comforting embrace. "Good question." Kim pulled the Kimmunicator out of her pocket and called Wade. "I need a med scan. Ron's got the mother of all headaches and we need to find out why."

"Ron?" Wade asked, clearly confused. "Why are you with Ron?"

"I'll explain later. Now run the scan, please and thank you!"

Wade's fingers danced lightly across his keyboard, causing a light blue beam to shoot out from the small device and run along Ron's head. "This is weird. His brain chemistry is all messed up. If I didn't know any better, I'd say he'd been on the receiving end of some sort of high energy brain tampering."

"The hypnotic strobe," Hana said. "Wade, is there any way to counteract the strobe's effects?"

"Who are you?"

"Later, Wade," Kim snapped. "Can you do it?"

"Not from here. I'll need to be up close and personal with the scanners in my lab." When Wade finished his sentence, Kim, Ron, and the others were all in his room. "How....?"

"Simple," Tempus said, "moving laterally through time requires very little effort."

Hana, with a very Ron like goofy grin, pulled another time necklace out of her pocket. "Put this on and we'll explain everything."

----

The Supreme Empress touched down on the outer perimeter of the secret lab housing the PTVI. "This would be easier if I could phase out," she grumbled. "But then again, it wouldn't be as much fun." The Empress engaged her armor's weapon systems, causing a pair of blasters to deploy from her gauntlets, her cape to retract into her shoulder guards, and her visor to turn from red to black. She grinned behind her faceplate. "Let's do it."

----

"That's the best I can do," Wade said from his workstation. "Since I don't know what a hypnotic strobe even is, I'm not sure I can really reverse the effects. That should at least keep the pain to a minimum."

"It still really hurts," Ron said. He was sitting on a stool in the middle of Wade's lab with a metal headband circling his head. It had red and green flashing sensors on it that monitored Ron's brain waves. "This thing isn't gonna wire itself into my brain, is it?"

"It's not designed to do that, Ron. It emits a low frequency charge that will dull or numb the pain receptors in your brain. It won't get rid of the pain completely, but like I said, it's the best I can do. If what you guys said is true, then you've been getting blasted with this thing pretty steadily for years." Wade sighed. "It's still so hard to believe. Time really has been messed with. None of this should be happening!"

"A similar string of events could very well be happening in a parallel timeline right now, Mr. Load," Tempus said. "For every possible decision, every possible outcome, there is a timeline where those events happened. There is a world where the Chicxhulub impact never occurred and the dinosaurs never went extinct. In another timeline, Thia never impacted an infant Earth, thus creating an Earth with no moon. There are others where the American Revolution was never fought, or Rome never fell; there is even a timeline where the the Earth itself never formed."

"Multiverse theory," Dawn said. "Every outcome has its own universe."

Everyone in the world gave her a funny look. "How do you know that?" RJ asked.

"Because, unlike some people I could mention, _Ronald,_ I actually pay attention to Grandpa when he talks about science stuff."

"That's all fine and good," Kim said, breaking up the sibling rivalry moment between her kids, "but how does that help us?"

Before anyone could answer, an alarm on Wade's computer went off. "Uh oh! It looks like someone's trying to steal the pan temporal vortex inducer."

"The Empress," Nogo said.

"It has to be," Hana agreed. "Looks like we have a mission!"

"I can get a ride lined up, but it might take a while."

"No need to worry, Mr. Load," Tempus said. "I can transport us where we need to go."

----

The Supreme Empress imprisoned the last of the guards in her stasis beam. "Sorry, boys. Nothing personal." She confidently strode down the hallway to the main lab. So sure was she that there were no more obstacles, that she disengaged her battle mode. Her visor had just returned to its red coloration when she ripped open the lab door. There waiting for her were the present and future members of team Possible. "You know, I never thought that was all that annoying before now," the Empress grumbled. "Well, this is the last time! I just want to leave this timeline and get on with my life."

"Not happening," Kim said. "How do we know you won't keep trying this until you get me to go to work for you?"

"I give you my word," the Empress said. "You don't deserve to lead my forces, Kim."

"Yeah, but you'll just keep doing this to other timelines," RJ argued. "No one else needs to go through what you put my 'rents through."

"What he said," Dawn agreed. "No one messes with our family!"

The Empress assumed an attack posture. "You really think you can take me?"

"We know we can," Hana said. "Perhaps you haven't heard, but there's no stopping a Stoppable!"

"Really now?" the Empress said. "I'll believe that when I see it."

"Believe this then," Nogo spoke up. "Our monkey buddy did the same thing to this PTVI as he did to yours! You're still stuck here."

The Empress quickly scanned the cylindrical device in the middle of the room. Sure enough, it had been negated. "That's it!" The Empress returned to battle mode and started firing wildly at her foes. "I would have brought the same peace to this world that I did to mine! But you don't deserve it! You don't deserve my protection!" The Empress attacked with a ferocity that, while expected, was still frightening. Razor sharp claws extended from her fingertips, and she slashed at her foes like a wild cat.

Ron, tapping into the Mystical Monkey Power, threw himself into the fray. "Back off, lady!" he warned. "The Ron-man is back to full power!"

The Empress just snickered. "Super powers or no, you can't take me. Nice headband, by the way. Trying to look like a sci fi reject from an 80's dance club?"

"You're one to talk," Shego said, referring to the crown shaped part of her helmet.

"It may be a little gaudy, but every empress needs her crown." A pair of energy siphons deployed from the Empress's forearms. "We've danced this dance before, Shego. You didn't defeat me last time, and you won't do it now."

"Big difference between me and the me you fought," Shego smirked, "she wasn't a mother fighting for her kids!" Shego fired off a quick volley of plasma bursts, forcing the Empress to shift position.

"Trying to herd me, Shego?"

"I could make some sort of livestock comment, but I'm not on the mood to wisecrack." Shego stood upright, folded her arms, and grinned. "Don't look behind you." The Empress spun when around she heard the sound of cracking behind her. She was just in time to see large chunks of wall collapse on her. "I told you not to look."

Team Possible was moving in when a large explosion threw debris in all directions. _"THAT IS IT!!!!!!!"_ the Empress shouted. Blades and energy weapons had deployed from various places on her armor. Her now shredded cape fluttered behind her like a pair of ruined bat wings as she zeroed in on Kim's location. "This is all your fault! You just had to have your way in this, just like a spoiled brat! Well not this time!" The Empress charged at Kim and tackled her before anyone could react. They struggled, but the Empress got the upper hand.

Kim's hands were pinned behind her back, and she had the Empress's hand around her throat. A blade extended from the gauntlet and came to rest just a hair's breadth away from Kim's carotid artery. "Back off!" the Empress demanded.

Ron's eyes narrowed. He wanted to unleash the full might of the MMP, but couldn't. The migraine, dulled though it was, made it too hard for him to focus. "Let her go, Queenie!"

"That's _EMPRESS, _you loser! Keep it up; if you want to see wifey here get turned into a shish kebob, then by all means, keep pushing my buttons!" The Empress was shaking in her armor; her rage was escalating, as was her inner conflict. _No! I can't do this! I'm not a killer! _she screamed in her mind.

_But they have to know I'm serious,_ was the argument from her malevolent side. _They have to know what will happens if they stand against me!_

"You don't want to do this," Hana said, trying to get a read on her opponent. "Let my sister go, and we'll talk about this."

"Sorry, kid, but there's nothing to talk about."

"You really are a coward, aren't you?" Kim asked. "I mean, hiding behind someone else like this is so pre-villain!"

"Princess, stop mocking the crazy person with a blade at your throat!"

"Relax, Shego, she won't do it," Kim said. "She doesn't have the guts."

"Uh, KP, I think Shego's right. This lady's ready to give you a close shave, and you don't even have a beard!"

"It'll be okay, Ron. Trust me."

"Yeah, loser, trust Kimmie," the Empress spat. "Trust her to ditch you for a hottie. Trust her to lock you in a closet again. Trust her to forget all about you when the next pretty face comes along. Do you really think this marriage of yours will last? It won't!"

"Yes it will," Dawn said in a smug tone. "I'm from twenty four years in the future. Mom and Dad are as much in love today as they were the day they got married. Every year we have the words 'Out there, in here' put on their anniversary cake! Mom always says that Dad is so much better than a golden hottie. Mom always told me that the golden boys are a dime a dozen, but guys like my dad come around once in a lifetime."

Kim smiled at her daughter. "That's my girl!"

The Empress wasn't impressed. "That's just sickening."

"Now you know how I feel when they're around," Shego quipped.

"Fine, I won't skewer her. But you're not getting her back, either!" Kim and the Empress vanished in a blinding flash of light. All that was left was a small wisp of smoke.

"Kim?" Ron ran out to where his wife had been mere seconds before. "Kim?!"

Before anyone else could move, another portal of swirling light opened where Ron had been standing.

"Everyone stand back," Tempus warned. "This is a pan temporal vortex."

----

Kim and the Empress reappeared in an abandoned warehouse twenty miles away from where they had been. "I never liked that site to site teleport," the Empress muttered as she tried to keep her last meal down. Kim wasn't so lucky. "Yeah, the first 'port will do that to you. That's another reason why I hardly use it. The nausea will pass in a few minutes."

"So now you're being nice?" Kim asked between heaves. "Are you gonna hold my hair for me too? You so don't make sense. First you want to kill me, now you're being nice to me. I thought you hated me."

"Not hate, Kim," the Empress said in a voice dripping with malice. "I'm just very disappointed in you, is all. Before I altered your history, what were you doing?"

"Getting ready to finish my undergrad," Kim answered before another wave of nausea hit. "And getting ready for law school."

"Yeah, you're doing your undergrad at the University of Upperton. Your mom had to be so thrilled about that."

"Do you have a point?"

"My point is, you were wasting yourself. A career in law? Please. You know as well as I do about the revolving door. Especially for super villain. The law isn't the answer. That's why I took control in my world, and why I would put you in control here. You could dispense your own justice."

"I'm not a killer," Kim coughed.

"Despite what you might think, neither am I." The Empress crouched beside her captive. "I never killed anyone, or ordered their deaths. I just locked my enemies up far away from anyone they could hurt."

"What about Shego?"

"So I had to get a little rough with her. She's still alive. She just doesn't have a tongue anymore."

----

Ron's jaw dropped when a lone figure emerged from the vortex. He saw a lean man wearing some sort of exoskeleton that showed through the rips in his tattered clothes. His blond hair hung to his shoulders, and he had a scraggly goatee on his chin. Everyone recognized the smattering of freckles he had on his lined cheeks, as well as the brown eyes sizing them up. Whereas Ron's eyes were warm and full of life, these eyes were tired and worn. The two Rons stood face to face and nose to nose.

"As Mom would say, the freak is off the chain," Dawn said.

"I don't think the freak was ever on the chain for this one, sis," RJ added.

"Where's Kim," the second Ron asked in a gruff voice.

"Not here," his counterpart replied.

"No duh, genius!" the newcomer snorted. "I can see that for myself! I tracked her here, now where did she go!"

"We don't know!" Hana said. "She got grabbed by that Empress lady, and they both disappeared in a flash of light!"

"Great, they teleported! I can't believe you let her go!"

"Hey, pal, we didn't let anyone go!" Shego yelled. "I don't care if you are another Stoppable, I'll still take you down."

The newcomer stared Shego down. "I think I like you better when you can't talk."

"Mom, don't do it!" Nogo had to hold his mother back to keep her from frying this Ron look alike.

"I really hope you're not the best this world had to offer." The blond haired man took a deep breath and looked around. "I guess you'll have to do. We have to find Kim before it's too late."

"Sure thing, Captain Obvious," the more jovial Ron said in a dark voice.

"Let's get one thing straight right now," the newcomer warned, "you may be me, but that doesn't mean I have to like you! Now if you want your Kim back, you'll follow me and do as I say!"

Shego refused to move. "If you think we're just gonna bow down to you, you can think again!"

The man gave Shego another dirty look. "Then stay here. I don't need you." He turned and stormed off, looking down at a scanner device in his hand.

"We must follow him," Tempus said. "He is another random element. He may do more harm than good if left unchecked."

"Great," Ron muttered. He watched his double as he walked off. "So we have a homicidal woman in battle armor, and now I have to deal with the world's worst case of self loathing. This tanks."

----

"There is no way I would ever help you!" Kim snapped. "You're the kind of evil I've dedicated my life to stopping."

"I'm not evil, Kim. I was just like you once."

"You're lying," Kim said through clenched teeth. "We're nothing alike!"

"Oh, but we are. I can prove it." The top of the Empress's helmet, right above the crown, split down the middle and folded into itself, exposing the top of her head. A hatch opened on the back of the helmet, allowing a mane of auburn hair to fall free. The faceplate divided in half and retracted into the sides of the helmet.

Kim's eyes grew to the size of dinner plates when she saw the face of the Supreme Empress; a face as familiar as her own. "No," Kim gasped. "It's not possible."

"Of course it is," the Empress taunted. "Dad always said that anything is possible for a Possible. Now, you accused me of lying to you. Tell me, Kim, why would I lie to myself?"

----

_Author's Note:_

_With Thanksgiving this week and all the craziness that comes with it, I can't guarantee that I'll have the next chapter ready by next Monday. _

_On behalf of the Waveform Clan, have a Happy Thanksgiving, and a great week!_


	7. Chapter 7

_Disney owns the characters, I'm just taking them for a test drive._

_----_

Kim Possible couldn't believe her eyes. But then again, nothing about this sitch was all that believable. From the moment that two different Team Possibles from different points in the future arrived to make sure that those futures would happen, Kim's life was turned upside down.

Kim learned that the life she was living was not the life she should have, and that two of the teenagers from the future were her own children; children she was to have with her former best friend Ron Stoppable. But now, with her memories of the proper timeline restored, she was confronted with the strangest sitch of all.

The Supreme Empress, the woman responsible for altering the timeline, had unmasked herself, and the face she revealed was Kim's own. "It's not possible," Kim said. "You have to be Camille Leon, or a synthodrone or something. There is no way you're me!"

"Oh, but I am, Kim," the Empress replied. "I am Kimberly Anne Possible, daughter of James and Anne Possible. I am you, Kim."

Kim didn't want to believe it. "But why? Why take over the world? You've turned into everything I've ever fought against; that _WE _fought against."

"I already told you, Kim," the Empress said. She sat down beside Kim, who could see her own horrified reflection in the crown still encircling her counterpart's head. "I was tired of fighting all of the scum who kept trying to take over." She deployed a long blade from her gauntlet. "And with this, I finally had the power to stop them."

----

Ron Stoppable had seen a lot of weird things in his time, but seeing a disheveled version of himself emerge from a pan temporal vortex was the new winner. That is, it was the winner until he heard what this other Ron, or Mad Dog as he wanted to be called, had to tell them about who their enemy really was.

"What do you mean KP's the Supreme Empress?"

"What are you, stupid or something?" Mad Dog growled. "Kim Possible is the person under the armor. It's not like that sideways eight thingie in math, Stoppable; it's not that hard to understand! She was corrupted by that armor."

"Yeah, about that," Shego said, "what comic book store did that come from?"

----

Kim saw the Empress smile almost like a person in love when she spoke of her armor. "This was the best thing that ever happened to me. Duff Killigan was trying to steal it for Drakken, so that loser Stoppable and I went to stop him."

"What's your beef with Ron?" Kim demanded.

"He betrayed me!" the Empress snapped. "He tried to take my armor away from me. No one will take it from me. They can't. It's part of me now." The Empress lovingly caressed her crown. "I am the Centurion Project."

----

"That didn't look like the Centurion Project to me," Ron observed.

"Well duh," his counterpart mocked, "she did change it around, y'know!"

"I guess that would explain that dumb looking crown," Nogo, Shego's teenage son from the future said.

"No, she always had that," Mad Dog answered. "It didn't always look like a crown, but it was always there. That's where the armor plugs itself right into her brain."

----

"Okay, that never happened!" Kim said. "That's not how the Centurion Project worked! It read my emotions, but it never wired itself into me. I was able to get the bracelet off after I came clean to Ron and mt 'rents about lying to them. That's all it did; it reacted to emotions!"

----

"Well, it did use Kim's stress about lying to me and her parents to turn itself on, but when she was all armored up, the crown thing sent a bunch of wires and stuff into Kim's noggin!" Mad Dog closed his eyes. "That was the start of it all. Wade thinks that the suit's own programming started to influence Kim's personality. It got to the point where we couldn't tell where she ended and the Centurion Project began."

----

"I'm better because of this," the Empress said. "No one could do anything to stop me! Even standard electromagnetic pulses didn't work on me. My own central nervous system was a back up for the Centurion Project's core operating systems."

----

Ron, using a spare Kimmunicator he had received from Wade, now had that same genius on the line. "According to the files I was able to access after we got the bracelet off of Kim, that type of interface system was going to be used for the original prototype, but a non invasive system that sensed emotional states was used instead." Wade scrutinized the files. "They had a pretty good reason, too."

"Let me guess," RJ Stoppable said, "it got changed because of exactly what Dad version 2.0 here is talking about."

"Exactly!" Wade agreed. "That and the fact that the scientists never figured out a way to separate the Centurion Project from its wearer."

"That leads to the big question," RJ's sister Dawn added. "How do we get Mom, well the Empress, out of that thing?"

"More like can we get her out?" Hana Stoppable said somberly. "This just went from bad to worse, didn't it?"

----

"You can't remove it, Kim," the Empress gloated. "I am the Centurion Project, and it is me. We are one. And we are the salvation of not just my world, but all worlds!"

"Okay, you are officially whack!" Kim snapped. "There is no way I'm helping you take over your world, my world, or any other one!"

"If you're not with me, you're against me," the Empress snarled. "You're just like Ron! That's why you married that loser! I won't let you off as easy as I did him."

----

Mad Dog was standing still, trying to get a fix on the Centurion Project's energy signature. "Don't tell me she found a way to mask it."

"Wade my man, I think the other me needs a hand," Ron said.

"I don't need help from you or anyone!" Mad Dog growled. "I don't get helped. None of my so called 'friends' could be bothered to bust me out of Kim's fortress!"

----

Kim couldn't believe her ears. "You held him captive? He's your best friend! How could you do that?"

"I kept him comfortable," the Empress said in an off hand voice. "Besides, his monkey powers made a great energy source."

---

"That's low," Shego said. "Even at my worst, I don't think I would've turned my best friend into a battery."

"Yeah, well, I don't need your pity, Shego," Mad Dog grumbled. "Why do you think I'm wearing this stupid exoskeleton? I can't even walk by myself anymore! I got drained that much. Heck, I haven't been able to feel the monkey mojo since I escaped. I don't know if I even have it anymore."

"I think I can help you with that," Hana said. "I'm the Han. I have Mystical Monkey Power, too. I might be able to restore your powers."

Ron didn't like that plan. "Uh, Han, I don't think that's such a good idea."

"Why not?" Mad Dog snarled.

"Look, dude, I don't care if you're me or not! I don't want my baby sister burning herself out and getting hurt!"

"Besides, we'll need her at full strength if another fight breaks out," Nogo added.

Mad Dog glared at Hana and Ron. "You get the baby sister, the title of Monkey Master, and you get to marry Kim. How do you rate? What makes you so special? I stuck by her right up to the point when she went all super villain on me, and what did I get? Locked up and drained!"

"Which is exactly why I'm doing this," Hana said. She saw her brother and Nogo about to argue with her. "Sorry, but this is my choice!" Hana placed her hand on Mad Dog's chest and concentrated. She couldn't see this Ron in her mind like she could her brother, but she hoped that she could still feel his power. It was there, but very weak. Hana's brow furrowed as she tried to tap into Mad Dog's dormant power, but nothing happened.

Even though he was, in essence, the same person as her brother, that connection wasn't there. Hana was strengthened by the love of those around her; especially her brother and her boyfriend. But this man, this Ron Stoppable, had very little love in his heart. "I can't do it. I just can't connect with you." She saw the disappointed look on Mad Dog's face. "I'm so sorry, Ron."

"So am I," Mad Dog growled. "This is so not fair."

"Neither is what we've been through," RJ said under his breath.

"You got something to say to me, Red?" Mad Dog yelled.

"My name is RJ, as in Ron Junior! And none of this is fair, _'Dad!'_' Do you know what it's like coming to a world where your parents hate each other? Do you know what it's like knowing that you'll never be born, and are now just a paradox? It tanks! It more than tanks! It's a total brain blender."

"It's okay, son," Ron said. "I think he gets the point." Ron was stepping up, as he'd done many times before. "Look, Ron, this is the deal. Your old best friend has my wife, and I want to get her back. You can't find them, but maybe we can. Like it or not, you need us as much as we need you." Mad Dog didn't answer. He just turned his back to Ron and walked off. "Wade man, any chance of tracing the Kimmunicator?"

That brought a grin to Wade's face. "Ask me after it's done!"

----

Kim was still trying to process the whole thing. _She's me with a psychotic version of the Centurion Project. And she has a major mad on for Ron. She thinks he betrayed her, but won't really say how._ Kim looked at the angry scowl of her alternate self. "What did Ron do, exactly? You're all tweaked at him for something, but all he did was try to you out of the Centurion Project!"

"Isn't that enough?!" the Empress demanded. "I told you that the Centurion Project is part of me! He can't take it away."

"Did Ron know it owuld hurt you?" Kim said.

"Does it matter? He still tried! What's worse, the little creep also sold me out!" The Empress's demeanor darkened. "He said he was going to help me, but I didn't need his help. He said that the Centurion Project was doing something to my mind. He was right. It made me see clearer. I knew what I had to do to save the world. That's when that loser showed his true colors. He betrayed me! He tricked me into going to the lab where the Centurion Project was built so they could separate me from it. And when that failed miserably, he went to work with one of the resistance cells that started up after I began my reign. He even figured out those monkey powers of his to fight against me! Me! His so called best friend! And through the whole sitch, he kept telling me he was helping me! Some help. I got even with him, though. I lured him into a trap and captured him. He was my prisoner for quite a while. Then he escaped."

Kim could have sworn she heard a light sniffle. _I know that look. That's the "I miss Ron look!" It looks like she cares more about him than she's letting on. _"You seem awfully fixated on Ron for someone who claims to hate him. You went out of your way to make my Ron's life miserable in this timeline. You put him with Bonnie, for crying out loud!"

"I figured they deserved each other." Again, the Empress's voice was cracking. "Bonnie and Ron...... in my world, after my ascension, Bonnie got all smug. She got what she wanted; she became cheer squad captain after I started my grand new mission. After crowning myself Supreme Empress Kimberly the First, I went to get Ron so I could offer him a place in my court. He may be a traitor, but he's still the best cook in the Tri-City. That's when I caught them together. Bonnie was holding him the way I used to! It made me sick. I captured him a few months later. He kept trying to tell me that it was nothing, that she was just comforting him after I left. Yeah right! Bonnie never comforted anyone. When I first came to this timeline, I watched your lives. I saw how that gold digger was with Ron's money. I knew that lightning would strike twice, so when I did my latest reset, I let Ron keep his money. He chose her over me in my timeline, so he could have her in yours! Ron Stoppable made his bed, now he could lie in it with _HER!_"

Kim closed her eyes as a powerful memory entered her mind. "You know, back in the old timeline, there was this time that Ron and Bonnie were homecoming king and queen. Bonnie totally stole it from me. One of the worst things I ever saw was when I walked into J.P. Bearymore's and saw Bonnie trying to shove her tongue down Ron's throat." The Empress let out a scowl. "That's how I felt. He insisted that he was the kissee, not the kisser. I had to remind him that it took him twelve years to kiss me."

"My Ron never kissed me," the Empress said, almost to herself.

Kim saw an opening and winked at her counterpart. "You're missing out, Kim. His kisses could melt through solid ice. On Pluto! He makes Josh Mankey look like an amateur." _Come on! Start jealling and let me see the real you!_

A searing hot energy beam scorched the ground in front of her, making Kim jump back. "That's enough! You're making me want to throw up worse than the teleport did. Shut up or I'll shut you up!"

The Empress was trying to talk tough, but the lone tear streaking down her cheek told Kim otherwise. _She's in even worse denial than I was. I have to be careful here. She is seriously unbalanced. But she's still me, and I can see that part of her trying to come out. There's got to be some way for me to get through to her. I just hope she doesn't fry me before I figure out how._

_----_

Ron decided that access to his own private limousine and an on call driver was worth having to put up with Bonnie Rockwaller, especially since Tempus Simia had informed them that he wouldn't be able to take them to Kim's location.

"This is a really bad time for the batteries to go dead, dude," Ron had squawked.

"It cannot be helped, Master Ronald," the monkey calmly replied. "Those lateral moves take little effort, but they do still require me to expend energy to accomplish them. If you desire this mission to have a happy end, then I must conserve my strength."

"I'm not clear on something," Shego said to Mad Dog. "If no one helped you, how did you escape?"

"By accident," was the reply. "The good guys came to bust Wade out after Kim nabbed him. I was in the right place at the right time." Mad Dog let out an annoyed sigh. "I was an afterthought. I swear, it's like my 'rents were running the resistance. After I got away, the Empress went ballistic. Fortunately she made enough mistakes so we could bring her down. But then she escaped into the timestream and I had to go looking for her. And now, here we are! That's my life story! Happy now, Shego?"

"Yeeesh, bite my head off why dontcha?"

"Mad Dog said this thing is part of Sis now, Wade," Hana said over her brother's Kimmunicator. "How big of a part of her is it?"

"According to the records I downloaded, the Centurion Project's own CPU basically acts as a second brain," the young genius reported. "Some of Kim's own higher brain functions would be routed through the Centurion Project. Maybe even some of her life support functions."

"And we can't take it off of her," Mad Dog grumbled. "The suit won't let us."

"More like Kim won't let you," Wade countered. "The Centurion Project is a protective battle suit triggered by feelings of stress; presumably the stress of battle. In our timeline, Kim got the Centurion Project to deactivate when she came clean about her lies and thus got rid of the stress that turned it on in the first place. With this other interface, even though stress activated it, the wearer has to will it to turn off. For whatever reason, your Kim doesn't want to be separated from it."

"So we talk her into it," Dawn suggested.

"I'm afraid not, Dawn," Wade said. "Remember how I said the scientists couldn't find a way to separate the wearer from the armor? That's because, after a set amount of time, the wearer becomes dependent on the Centurion Project to stay alive. And I'll bet that Kim passed that point years ago. She and the Centurion Project are effectively a single entity now. It would be like taking someone off life support."

"And the hits just keep on coming," Nogo said under his breath. "So how do we stop her?"

Mad Dog pulled a small metal disc out of his pocket. "With this. It's something the Wade from my world whipped up. It's a kill switch. It'll disrupt the nano thingies in the Centurion Project and shut it down for good."

"But won't that kill her?" Dawn asked in a horrified voice.

"Kim Possible died a long time ago," Mad Dog answered in a solemn voice. "This will kill that monster wearing her face."

"We're coming up on the place, Mr. S," the chauffeur said.

"Thanks, Shirley," Ron answered. "Park us far enough away that no one will see us coming."

"Gotcha!"

_Hang on Kim, _Ron thought. _Both of you. We're coming._

_----_

Kim Possible had heard the old expression about a person being their own worst enemy, but this was taking it too far. What was worse, the Empress couldn't seem to figure out if she missed Ron Stoppable or despised him. Kim was still trying to wrap her head around her counterpart's motivations. "Let me get this straight. You see Ron and Bonnie hugging, which I admit is a gorchy thought, and you think they have a thing?"

"Of course I think they have a thing," the Empress snapped. "Why else would he constantly be fighting against me and trying to take me apart?"

"How could you think Ron would betray you like that?" Kim asked.

"Payback," she said bitterly. "Revenge for the closet at the Spirit Dance, or because he didn't like Josh Mankey, or something! I don't know! But he was out to get me. Bonnie turned him against me and he betrayed me." The other Kim looked almost like a jilted lover. "He kept saying that I wasn't Kim anymore, and that he wanted to help me get back to normal. The only 'help' he wanted to give me was to take the Centurion Project from me. That jerk couldn't even understand why I was doing what I was doing. I did it for him, so he wouldn't have to fight and be the distraction anymore; so he wouldn't get called the buffoon or the loser sidekick anymore. But he ran from me!" The Empress's face softened. "It's like he was afraid of me. What was worse, he ran to Bonnie! That's why I started using her old nickname for him. I was that mad."

The Empress's eyes started to brighten, and her voice softened. "But then my luck changed, and I figured out a way to lure him into a trap. Don't you see? I had to lock him up, or he would have run away from me again. And I had to drain him to keep him from trying to run away. Don't you get it? That's the only way I could keep him with me!"

"But I thought you hated him," Kim pressed.

The Empress didn't respond. She just stood there shaking. "I just want my world back," she finally said. "And you were supposed to help me do it! All of you were supposed to help me do it; every Kim Possible we found in every timeline! Every time I reset you and split you up, you always found each other again. You were that resilient! If you can do that, then you can help me take my empire back! Imagine it, Kim; if I turn you, and every one of our counterparts to my way of thinking, there is no force in all the multiverse that could stop us! I mean, who better to help me than me? And in return, you would all rule your universes as I rule mine."

Kim closed her eyes for a moment as realization set in. "I don't think you want me to help take back your empire."

"Don't be stupid," the Empress growled. "Why else would I want your help?"

"You want things to go back to how they were before you got the Centurion Project. You want your Ron back in your life like he was before. I think after seeing me get Ron back despite your best efforts, you decided to have me help you get your Ron back, too! But if that's the case, there's something I don't get; why did you keep breaking me and my Ron up! We never did anything to you!" Kim slowly and carefully approached her counterpart. "Look, Ron and I didn't always have a smooth path to where we are now. I let Bonnie's 'food chain' garbage mess with me for too long. That's how I let myself get fooled by one of Drakken's synthodrones. But we made it. We fell in love, we got married, and we were happy. I just met teenage versions of children I haven't even had yet! Why did you take that away from us?"

"I don't need to explain myself to you," the Empress said in a barely audible voice. _You know she's right,_ her inner voice protested. _For once, just listen! Please!_

"I think it was because you realized how much Ron meant to you when you saw him with Bonnie," Kim continued. "And you decided that if you couldn't have him, no one could. That's why these resets of yours aren't working the way you want them to. You're not trying to turn me into a loyal soldier. I think this isn't about me at all. You're just getting revenge on someone who you feel abandoned you. That's why you let Ron live in that farce of a relationship with Bonnie in this reset, and did God knows what else to him in others."

"How do you figure that, genius?" the Empress groused.

"Because something like that happened to me," Kim answered. "I saw Ron go off with a ninja named Yori to save her grandfather. I don't think I've ever been so jealous in my life! And then when I saw her kiss him on the cheek, well, let's just say that Ron's obliviousness to the whole sitch was a good thing. Look, Kim, you don't have to do this anymore. Take me back to the others, and maybe we can convince Tempus to let us take you home. Then we can find your Ron and start making things right again."

"And who decides what's right? You?" The switch in the Empress's head flipped again, and the rage returned in full force. "Just because you're me doesn't give you the right to lecture me, Kim! You're lucky I need you in order to get out of this timeline."

"Or what, you'd kill me? I hate to break it to you, but in this case, that's suicide as much as it is murder, and we're not suicidal or killers!"

Before the Empress could respond, a proximity alarm went off in the Centurion Project. A red visor deployed from the crown circling her head. She was able to "see" through the solid concrete wall, and watch as the limo pulled in. Her enhanced audio receptors picked up the sounds of Team Possible approaching the warehouse. "They're here," she hissed. "I figured they'd show up sooner or later, but I thought it would be later with Ron leading the way."

"I'm not surprised," Kim said in a smug voice. "We've got each other's backs. Or perhaps you've forgotten what that's like."

_She's right, I shouldn't be surprised. Ron always came through when it counted. _The Empress felt her malevolent side, the side that was always screaming in her mind, assert its dominance again. "I don't care what you think he's done for you, Kim. He'll fail. Like the loser he truly is." _Who are you trying to convince? _the Empress's benevolent side asked. _Her, me, or yourself?_

----

"We're not really going to let that guy use the kill switch on the Empress, are we, Bro?" Hana asked her brother. "It sounds to me like the Centurion Project's controlling her somehow."

"That's what we thought, too," Mad Dog said. "The Centurion Project doesn't have any artificial intelligence. My Wade thinks that the suit's programming is filtering into Kim's brain through the neural connections. She sees everything as mission objectives now. She's almost like a computer. And since she's been hooked into that thing for so long, she needs it to live. There is no Kim Possible anymore. Just that thing!"

Ron grabbed his counterpart's shoulders and spun him around. "Look, dude, I don't care what you say, we are not killing Kim! Mine or yours!"

"I was like you once," Mad Dog snarled. "But then I spent a few years being treated like a rechargeable battery! That kinda puts things into perspective, y'know?"

A large explosion ended the argument between the two Rons before it could really heat up, as did a voice that said, "Oh look, now I have two of you to get even with!" All eyes went skyward to see the Empress hovering above them with her jets engaged, and Kim being towed along in a grappler beam. "Long time no see, Ronnie. Miss me?"

"Kim," Mad Dog growled.

"Oh my God," the Empress whispered when she finally recognized Mad Dog as her old friend. "Ron? Is that really you?"

"Yeah. It's me. I'm here to take you back home."

That weakened spark of hope in the Empress's mind grew brighter. "You really came for me?"

"You need to answer for your crimes, Kim!" Mad Dog shouted.

"That was the wrong thing to say, loser," the Empress snarled. Her bad side was back in the driver's seat, and the Centurion Project immediately returned to battle mode. "If you want a fight, you've got one!"


	8. Chapter 8

_Disney owns the characters, I'm just taking them for a test drive._

_----_

Brown eyes met green for the first time in months. The green eyes were full of conflict; switching back and forth from rage and anger to longing and loss. The brown eyes never moved, never wavered, and never changed their expression. For as hard set as Ron "Mad Dog" Stoppable's face was, his eyes showed his true emotion. Fear. He was afraid of his own best friend, or rather, what his best friend had become.

Supreme Empress Kimberly the First, once known to her wold as world saving teen hero Kim Possible, tried to fight against her own splintered heart and mind. She was nearly enraged to see her former partner in crime fighting now allied with those who had banded against her in this timeline. _I should have figured he'd pull something like this,_ that aspect of the Empress thought. _He just had to show up and ruin things!_

On the other hand, she saw the fear in Mad Dog's eyes, and it broke her heart. _I did this,_ that aspect of her mind countered. _I'm the one who captured him, held him prisoner, and drained his powers. It's no wonder he's afraid of me._

There were another set of green and brown eyes, identical to those of Mad Dog and the Empress. Before the timeline was altered, those eyes belonged to Kim and Ron Stoppable, two young newlyweds enjoying the start of their life together. Those eyes now belonged to Kim Possible and Ron Stoppable; estranged best friends. But since regaining their memories of the old timeline, they had reunited. Now both sets of those eyes held the same emotions; relief to see the other alive, and anticipation for the upcoming battle. Although in Ron's case, there was fear mixed in with that anticipation. Actually, for Ron Stoppable, the two had always gone hand in hand.

"Well, here we are again," the Empress declared. "I'd say it's good to see you, Ron, but I'd be lying." _You're lying right now, _that small voice in the back of her head taunted. "Shut up," the Empress hissed under her breath.

"It's Mad Dog now, Your Worship," the alternate Ron Stoppable said. "Look, crossing timelines is kinda exhausting. What do you say we just stop this now and go home?"

"So I can 'pay for my crimes,' Ron? I don't think so."

"Look, I don't care what you do," Hana Stoppable declared. "I just want my sister back!"

"And I want my godmother," Nogo, Shego's son added.

"And give us back our mom!" Dawn Stoppable said with her big brother RJ at her side.

Shego's hands flared to life. "You heard the kids, Queenie. Let Kim go, if you know what's good for you."

Ron's eyes turned blue, and his skin started to take on a blueish tint. "Things aren't looking good for you, Empress," he said. "Give me back my wife."

"Your wife?" the Empress laughed. "Sorry, Ron, but that boat sailed, and you missed it. I made sure of that. Besides, I thought you'd like life with Bonnie. Ask your look alike friend here about that! He and Bonnie in our timeline are closer than close. Isn't that right, Ron?"

"What are you talking about?" both Rons asked.

"Don't play dumb with me, Mad Dog!" the Empress snapped. "Although, I doubt you're actually playing. Don't forget, I saw you two together. Or do you still insist that she was just comforting you?"

Mad Dog scowled. "That's all it was, Kim. In fact, she swore me to secrecy about that whole sitch! If it makes you feel any better, she kicked me off the cheer squad the very next day and made a new rule stating that there would be no mascots while she was in charge!"

"Okay, I'm confused," Ron said.

"Don't worry about it, Ron!" Kim yelled. "Just concentrate on the Empress!"

"About time someone started talking some sense," Shego said with a smirk. "Hey, Joey, you feel like double teaming our friend up there?"

"Remember what happened last time?" Nogo asked.

"Yeah, but we went one on one with her. This time she'll have to choose her target. Come on, kid, trust your mother."

Nogo's smirk matched his mom's. "Let's do this then!"

The Empress couldn't help but laugh as the mother and son duo positioned themselves. Shego's hands were engulfed in green fire, and a pair of vines crackling with blue electricity had sprung from the backs of Nogo's hands. "How soon you forget," the Empress chuckled. "Your powers can't hurt me. Either of your powers."

"Oh really?" Shego asked in a snide tone. "You hear that, kiddo? The Princess here thinks she's better than us!"

"It's _Empress,_ Shego, and I am better than you!"

"I don't know, Mom," Nogo chucled, "she sounds kind of overconfident to me. I think we can take her!"

"So do I!" Shego let loose a flurry of plasma bursts. The Empress created a disc of energy before her, blocking Shego's attacks.

Nogo, meanwhile, sprinted behind her and gave his godmother a quick nod. Knowing that the Empress could absorb his electrical powers, Nogo instead wielded his vines like whips, snapping them and making them crack. That distracted the Empress, leaving Shego wide open to fire off a few more bursts. One blast snuck by the Empress's shield and hit the shoulder mounted blaster generating the grappler beam. The Empress screamed in pain when the blaster exploded, releasing her counterpart.

Kim landed as elegantly as an Olympic gymnast nailing the dismount. "Nice distraction work there, Joey!"

"I learned how to be a sidekick from Uncle Ron," Nogo said with pride. "Which means I learned from the best!"

The Empress glared at her various nemeses. "Okay, I'll admit that you've all got game. But you're still no match for me!" A fresh pair of blasters deployed from her hips, and a serrated blade extended from her right gauntlet. "A Swiss Army Knife is nothing compared to the Centurion Project. I can take anything you throw at me!"

Mad Dog stepped up to his former friend. "You're losing your touch, Kim! I remember a time when you didn't like weapons like that, and now you're hiding behind them!"

"Do you have a death wish, Stoppable?" the Empress sneered. "Or maybe you miss being my prisoner. Is that it? You want to come back home with your Empress?"

_No! _her inner voice protested. _We're not doing it to him again! _

"Shut up! Do you want him back or not?"

_Not like that I don't!_

"Okaaaaaaay," Shego said. "Is it just me, or is she having an argument with herself?"

"That's nothing new," Mad Dog snorted. "She always talks to herself these days."

"I take back what I said earlier, Ron," the Empress said. "I am glad to see you. If you're here, that means you have a working pan temporal vortex inducer. Hand it over, loser!"

"He's not a loser, Kim!" the Empress's counterpart yelled. "Did you forget how much we hate hearing people use that word on him?"

_She's got you there._ That inner voice was getting louder.

"When I say it, it's different," the Empress argued. "Coming from me, its an imperial decree!"

"You' may look like her, but you're not my mother," Dawn Stoppable spat. "Yeah, Mom gets really tweaked at Dad sometimes, and a lot of times he deserves it! But when they fight, Mom never insults him."

"And when they fight, it never lasts very long," RJ added. "Mom always said that insults like that are a sign of someone who doesn't like herself very much. What's that say about you, Your Majesty?"

"I will not be spoken to like that by loser spawn!" the Empress shrieked. All of her functioning blasters started glowing a violent red.

_And I will not let you do this to them!_

"You can't stop me!"

_Oh yes I can! I'm Kim Possible; I can do anything!_

"You're not Kim Possible! _I AM!!!!!"_

_News flash, lady; we BOTH are! _

"Okay, she's freaking out again!" Ron yelled.

"She's been leading up to this, Ron," Kim said. "It's almost as if she's at war with herself."

The Empress grabbed her head and groaned in pain. "Stop it," she muttered. "Stop fighting me....."

"Keep fighting it, Kim!" the other Kim Possible cheered. "You're stronger than the Centurion Project!"

"I'm not... the Centurion Project......... "

_But you're linked to it now! That's where you decided to call home!_

"Ron...." the Empress struggled to say through clenched teeth. "I'm.... sorry.....

"Kim?" Mad Dog gasped in disbelief. "KP?"

At that moment, Hana felt a sudden warmth come from Mad Dog. His powers were stirring. _You do still have a heart!_

The Empress's eyes shot open, but they looked different. There was a clarity that hadn't been there before. That one little nickname, a nickname she hadn't heard in years, was all it took to turn the tide. "Initiate..... protocol....."

_No! _the once dominant malevolent voice screamed. _Don't do it!_

"Protocol... gamma... delta delta....... seven five five one!" The Empress stood in silence, waiting for the suit to execute the order. It didn't.

"Okay, what was supposed to happen?" Shego asked when it became obvious that nothing was going to happen.

The Empress started laughing loudly. "I told you not to do it!" she said to her inner voice. "Don't you remember what happened the last time you tried that? The emergency shutdown almost killed us! I had to disable it."

_You can't stop me forever!_

"Of course I can. I've always been stronger than you."

"This is starting to give me a headache," Shego complained.

"Think of how I feel," Ron muttered. He rubbed his temples right underneath the specialized headband Wade had given him to dull the pain of his migraines.

_We did that to him, _the Empress's inner voice insisted. _He's our best friend and we did that to him!_

"He's not our best friend," the Empress spat.

_He may be from a different timeline, but he's still Ron Stoppable!_

"Yeah he is," the Empress agreed through clenched teeth. "And that means he's just as guilty as Mad Dog!" The Empress lashed out, letting the Centurion Project guide her already fluid movements. First she grabbed Nogo's vines and pulled hard, ripping them from the backs of his hands and causing him to shriek in pain.

"Get your hands off my _SON!"_ Shego screamed after hearing Nogo's agonized cry. The Empress didn't back down. Instead she fired a volley of stun blasts from her functional shoulder cannon, knocking the green woman to the ground.

Next came RJ and Dawn, who got in a few shots on their mother's counterpart. Until, that is, she played her trump card. "You'd really hit your own mother?"

The Stoppable siblings stopped for a split second, which was more than enough time for the Empress to fell RJ with a high kick, and wrestle Dawn to the ground in a sleeper hold.

Kim and Ron didn't sit idly by while their children were assaulted. Ron struck first, channeling as much of the Mystical Monkey Power as he could. Hana was there to back up her brother and get a few hits in for her injured boyfriend. A flexible steel tendril shot out from the Empress's wrist and wrapped around Ron's neck. With a quick flick, the Monkey Master was hurled into the Han, knocking them both back more than five feet.

Kim knew she couldn't beat the Empress in hand to hand combat; she knew that that they knew each other's moves, and that the Empress had augmented strength and speed. Instead, Kim decided to fight dirty. But before she could throw the softball sized rock she found, Mad Dog took the field. "Time to end this, Your Highness!" he declared before pulling a concealed blaster from his shredded cargo pants. He took aim and fired, but the Empress was one step ahead of him. She put up an absorption field, and redirected his energy blast back at him.

The bolt of red light slammed into Mad Dog's chest, sending him flying into Kim. "You should have learned by now that you can't stop me. None of you ants can stop me! I am supreme, remember?" The Empress stormed up to where Mad Dog and Kim were struggling to get to their feet. A metallic glint of light caught her attention. She looked closer, and saw the lattice like framework of a metal exoskeleton showing through the smoldering hole in the front of mad Dog's black mission shirt. "What is that?" she asked in a whisper.

"Exoskeleton," Mad Dog coughed. "It had to be grafted to me after I got away." Mad Dog gave the Empress a look that could freeze a raging inferno. "You should be proud, Empress. This is because of you. You drained me so much that I don't have the strength to move on my own anymore. Now I'm twenty percent machine. Thanks to you I'm just a wannabe Darth Vader."

"My God," both Kims gasped.

_He's like me in a way,_ the Empress's dark side thought with a bit of pride. _I should've thought of that sooner. A Supreme Consort would be nice; someone to keep me a little company. I wonder how Josh Mankey would look as a knight in shining armor._

_We hurt him,_ her benevolent side realized. The Empress looked over at the other Ron, who was being helped to his feet by Hana. _I hurt both of them. I'm turning him into us. Into me. What have I done? _The Empress placed her hand gently on Mad Dog's chest and traced her fingers along the struts of the exoskeleton. Sensors in her fingertips told her how deep into Mad Dog's body the metal was implanted. "Ron," she whispered. "Oh God I'm so sorry. I never meant to hurt you...."

"Coulda fooled me," Mad Dog grunted.

That remark angered the Empress enough for her malevolent side to surface. "Be glad that's all I did! You deserve so much worse for turning against me."

"What is it with her switching polarities like that?" Nogo asked in a pained voice as Hana and Sego helped him back to a sitting position.

"Are you okay?" Shego asked her son.

"I will be as soon as my vines regenerate. Man that hurts worse than having hair pulled out."

"Sis was right," Hana observed. "She's at war with herself. It's almost as if there are two minds fighting it out to see who's in charge."

"But that Mad Dog guy said that the Centurion Project didn't have a mind of its own," Shego countered.

"Maybe it didn't then, but it does now." Hana was concentrating on the alternate version of her brother. She could feel his power start to reassert itself when he called the Empress "KP." _Find your heart, Mad Dog. It's the only way to win this._

----

Tempus Simia, who had been silent and out of the way this whole time, watched in trepidation. He had the power to stop this, but in so doing, he would ensure that the damage to this timeline would never be repaired. Like Hana, he felt the Mystical Monkey Power starting to flicker to life within Mad Dog. "May he again find his way," the time monkey solemnly said.

Tempus saw the eldest of the naked mole rats gathered around him ready to rush into the fray. "No, friend Rufus, I fear you and your descendants would be trampled in the chaos." Rufus's shoulders slouched and he squeaked at the living embodiment of time. "I understand, Rufus, but trust your human family. They are quite capable." Roxy and Rachel, Rufus's granddaughter and great granddaughter respectively, nodded in agreement with Tempus. "I fear we have been relegated to the role of observers, my friends. So let us watch, and lend support where we can."

----

Kim and Ron approached their alternate selves. "You don't need to do this, Kim," the Empress's double said.

"So he hugged Bonnie," Ron added. "I thinking that's punishment enough!"

The Empress gazed upon Ron with hatred in her eyes. "You're not worth any of this," she hissed. "All I've done, all I sacrificed, everything I did back in my timeline; you're not deserving of any of it!"

"I didn't deserve to be treated like a power outlet, either!" Mad Dog growled. "I didn't deserve to have my best friend turn against me!"

"You turned against me!" the Empress screamed. "You tried to rip me apart!"

"I tried to get you out of that suit!"

_"I AM THIS SUIT!!!!!!!!"_

"No you're not!" Mad Dog yelled. "You're a prisoner of it. You're not it! KP, you're stronger than the Centurion Project. Fight it, not me!"

Again the Empress's inner voice felt a twinge of hope that strengthened her good side, while weakening the malevolent aspect. "Ron," the Empress whispered, again with her good half in control. "I never meant to hurt you..... please believe me when I say that."

_Don't grovel to him! We're the Supreme Empress! He's the one who should be begging for forgiveness!_

Try as she might, the Empress's benevolent side couldn't get mad. "I've... had it with you..." she stammered. Looking at her still damaged shoulder cannon, she smiled. "But I know a way to shut you up. Initiate protocol seven alpha tango!"

From deep within the Empress's mind came an almost anguished scream. As it subsided, another voice spoke up; a cold monotonous voice. Both it and the Empress spoke as one. "Self diagnostic and repair mode activated. Estimate ten minutes for diagnostic cycle and self repair." The Empress then collapsed in exhaustion. Surprisingly, it was Mad Dog who came to her aid first.

He crawled to her as quickly as his tired and battered body would allow. "Kim?" he asked. "I-is that you? Really you?"

"Long time no see, Ron," the armored woman replied. Her face was softer, and her green eyes, though tired, were again filled with life. "We don't have much time. As soon as the repair cycle is complete, the Centurion Project will restart and she'll come back!"

"Who is she?" Kim asked.

"She's me." The Empress reached out for Mad Dog, who reluctantly took her in his arms and held her. "I've missed you so much," the Empress sighed, loving the feeling of Ron holding her again.

"I'm confused," RJ Stoppable said. "Dad Part Deux there said the Centurion Project didn't have any AI. How is it controlling you?"

"It's not," the Empress replied. "Estimate seven minutes remaining on self diagnostic," she then reported. "The Centurion Project turned on when I got stressed out over lying. By the time I calmed down enough for the armor to turn off, it did everything it could to keep me stressed out."

"But why?" Dawn asked in horror.

"Because I'd passed the point of no return. I'd been wearing the Centurion Project for too long and I needed it to live. If it shut off, it would kill me. So it kept me stressed in order to save me. For some reason, it divided me in half! My anger, rage, sadness; all my negative emotions were shunted to the Centurion Project's on board computer. That part of me became like a separate personality, but it was still me! I was still aware of everything. I was always in conflict with myself, but I couldn't stop it. This part of me can't get mad enough to fight!"

"But you did fight," Hana said, crouching by this alternate version of her sister. "You fought and won!"

The Empress reached up and caressed Hana's cheek. "What I would have given to have a little sister like you, Hana," she said sadly. "But I haven't won. In five minutes, the diagnostic will be over. A few minutes after that, the self repair will finish. After the Centurion Project restarts, she'll be back, I can't fight her anymore. I'm so tired now."

"I just wish you'd done it sooner," Shego huffed. She was looking over her son's wrists to see how hurt he was.

"I don't know how I did it now," the Empress said.

"I do," Kim smiled. "It was Ron. Your Ron. Love is stronger than hate."

The Empress looked up at the tired face of her onetime best friend. She reached up and ran her metal clad fingers through his hair. "Yes, it is." In a move that surprised everyone but Kim, the Empress pulled Mad Dog's face to hers and pressed her lips to his. What was more surprising was seeing how quickly this other Ron surrendered to the kiss.

Reluctantly, the Empress released Mad Dog and smiled. "You were right, Kim. His kisses can melt the ice on Pluto." Both runs turned bright red right before the Empress's eyes shot wide open. "Diagnostic complete. Initiating repair sequence. Estimate two minutes until system restart."

"No," Mad Dog whined. "No, she can't come back!"

"She's me, Ron. The worst part of me."

"I can't lose you again!" A faint blue glow started shimmering around him. "Please, KP, don't go..."

"I don't have a choice." The Empress looked over and saw her ruined cannon rebuilding itself. "I don't think Wade would have sent you here without a means of stopping me. Where is it?" Mad Dog slowly pulled the silver disc from his pocket. The Empress took it and looked it over. "It's an override, isn't it? This will disrupt the nanites in the armor." Mad Dog nodded. "Use it."

"What!?"

"Please, Ron! Use it and let me go!" Tears were now streaming from her eyes. "If I ever meant anything to you, you'll set me free!"

"Kim, no, there has to be another way." Mad Dog was now openly weeping. "This isn't like you! You don't give up!"

"It's not like me to take over the world, either, but I still did. Please, Ron. Please just let me go." The Empress gave him one more weak kiss. "I love you. Don't forget that. That's why I captured you. I needed you with me, but I couldn't break free long enough to tell you that." The two Kims locked eyes. "You were right, Kim. I didn't want you to help me get my empire back. I wanted my Ron back. Thank you for helping say goodbye to him."

The Empress's admission made Mad Dog sob even harder. "I love you," he managed to say.

"Then set me free. Repairs ninety nine percent complete. System restart imminent."

Frantically, Mad Dog pressed the small buttons on top of the disc before affixing it to the Empress's crown. "KP...."

"Goodbye, Ron. Tell everyone how sorry I am."

Mad Dog pressed one last button, and the Empress slowly closed her eyes. As her body went limp, the Centurion Project returned to its default configuration; the same configuration it had when it first sprang from the bracelet. Mad Dog eased his best friend's limp form to the ground.

"I-is she?" Dawn started to ask.

"No," Mad Dog cried. "I couldn't do it. I just couldn't! I changed settings on the bypass....... put the Centurion Project into sleep mode. That's why Wade built it in the first place; to put Kim to sleep and bring her back to see if we can get her out of this thing."

"How long can you keep her that way?" Nogo asked.

"I don't know," Mad Dog said. "Hopefully long enough to get her home and find a way to get the Centurion Project off without killing her."

Tempus floated up to the scene when Kim placed a hand on her double's face. Tempus used Kim to read the Empress's possible futures, and they all ended the same way. "I am sorry, Master Ronald, but all attempts to free her will be unsuccessful. She is physically and mentally part of the Centurion Project. She cannot be separated from it. There is no way to restore her to the way she was."

Mad Dog held the Empress close to him and wept. His aura burned brighter. "It's not fair. All she ever wanted to do was help people. She didn't deserve this."

"No, Master, she did not," Tempus agreed.

It was then the Mad Dog noticed his glow. "What's happening?"

"You found your heart again," Hana said. "You have your powers back."

"Fat lot of good they do me now."

"On the contrary," Tempus said, "they have returned at the perfect time. Everyone, gather around me. It is time to depart."

----

One second Team Possible was gathered outside of an old warehouse, the next they were in a stark white void. "Where?" Shego said.

"We are in between the ticks of a clock," Tempus explained. "You cannot exist in the timestream itself. These are the last few seconds left of the unaltered timeline. This is where I housed the Han, Joseph, Dawn and young Ronald, and it is here that you will remain until I repair the damage done to time."

"Yeah, and how long will that be?" the irate green woman demanded.

"Already done," the time monkey quipped. "I have reset the timeline again. Things have been restored to they way they were before the Empress began interfering. Time will resume its proper flow when you all return to when you came from."

"So that's it?" Nogo asked in a tine just as irate as his mother's. "You're just going to send us back now and leave those two to just fade away in the timestream?"

"You can return at any time by removing those necklaces, Joseph." Tempus turned to Mad Dog and the Empress. "And now, Master Ronald, it is time to deal with Lady Kimberly."

"What do you mean?" Mad Dog asked tearfully.

"You are again the Monkey Master," Tempus said. "I can tether myself to you and enter your timeline."

The light went off in Dawn's head. "You're going to reset their timeline, aren't you? You're going to alter their future!"

"No, Dawn, I am not," Tempus replied. "I can repair temporal damage, but actively changing the flow of time is beyond me abilities. Remember that I was weakened by changes to our timeline. Mad Dog hails from an alternate reality. I doubt I will be as strong there. All I will be able to do is restart their timeline; probably from just before Lady Kimberly joined with the Centurion Project."

"How's that gonna help?" Ron asked.

"Simple, Master," Tempus smiled. "Both you and Shego carry residual memories of the Supreme One's totalitarian future. I would venture a guess that Lady Kimberly also has dreams of that adventure, even if she cannot remember them. You carry those fragments of memory because you traveled through time, and thus, you were not part of its linear flow. It is my hope that this Master Ronald and Lady Kimberly will also carry bits of memory, and therefor be able to avert the future they lived through. They, too, have jumped through time, so the theory is sound."

"That sounds like a long shot," Kim observed.

"How do we know we didn't already try it?" Dawn asked frantically. "How do we know that the other Mom didn't became the Empress all over again, and she keeps messing with our timeline? How do we know we're not trapped in some kind of time loop, doomed to keep repeating this until entropy devours the universe whole?!"

"Okay, Dawnie, you really need to stop watching the Knowing Channel with Grandpa," RJ joked.

"As Lady Kimberly said, it is a long shot," Tempus said, regaining control of the discussion, "but it is the best I can do. If successful, it will be a second chance not only for Master Ronald and Lady Kimberly, but for their world as well." Tempus turned again to Mad Dog. "What say you, Master? There are no guarantees, but it is a chance. We cannot separate her from the Centurion Project, but perhaps we can prevent her from joining with it."

Mad Dog sniffed and wiped his eyes. "It's better than nothing. Let's do it."

"Very well," Tempus nodded. "May I see your pan temporal vortex inducer?" Mad Dog pulled a scaled down version of the time travel device from his pocket. Tempus closed his eyes and examined the small cylinder. "So that is how you bridge the gap between timelines. Deceptively simple." A swirling blue vortex opened in front of Tempus and Mad Dog. "Come, let us see if we can save your future."

Mad Dog looked over at Kim, Ron and their family. "You're lucky," he said. "You have what I've always wanted."

"Maybe you'll still get it," Kim said. She walked over and gave Mad Dog a kiss on the cheek. "Good luck, Ron."

Dawn came over and hugged the alternate version of her father. "Yeah, good luck, Daddy."

Ron, RJ and Hana helped Mad Dog lift the Empress's unconscious form. "Go on, get outta here," Ron said. "You've got a world to save!"

"I shall return soon," Tempus said before vanishing in the portal.

"Wait a second!" Shego shouted. "Just what are we supposed to do until you get back!? Come back here, you stupid little monkey!!!"

----

A wave of disorientation passed over Tempus Simia when he emerged from the pan temporal vortex. Had he not sheathed himself in a pocket of his native timeline, he was certain he would be so weak that he couldn't hold himself together.

They arrived just seconds after Mad Dog had left. What Tempus saw surprised him. The world of the Supreme Empress was clean; the sky was bright, and the sunlight glistened off the proud buildings of The Empress's capital city. _But a gilded cage is still a cage,_ the time monkey thought. He looked over at Mad Dog, who was again on the ground holding the Empress to him. "I only have the strength to do this once, Master. I will restart time from before she and the Centurion Project became one. It will be as if none of this ever happened."

"And I'll kind of remember this?"

"I hope," Tempus said. "It may take the form of dreams or random images. I cannot guarantee it, though."

"Then all this might happen again, like Dawn said?"

"Possibly," Tempus conceded. "But we will not know until we try. Are you ready?"

Mad Dog looked down at his armor clad love. "If there's any chance at all of this not happening to her, I'm for it."

Tempus placed a hand on Mad Dog's shoulder. "Then I wish you the best of luck, Monkey Master. Your path will never be one filled with ease, but an easy life is not as fulfilling. Tell me, have you ever wondered why it was you and not Monkey Fist who became Monkey Master?" Mad Dog nodded that he hadn't. "It is because of your heart. Montgomery Fiske loved only power and himself. But your heart is filled with love for others. Only a strong heart could still feel love for the friend who was corrupted, even after years of captivity. You lost your way for a while, but found it again. I know that, no matter what, your ability to love will see you through any obstacles. Hold her close to you, Master, and prepare yourself. If all goes well, this will all be but a faint memory! Good luck, Master Ronald. May this be the final reset!"

For Ron "Mad Dog" Stoppable, the world faded to white.


	9. Chapter 9

_Disney owns the characters; I'm just taking them for a test drive._

_----_

One would think that resetting and restarting time would be like hititng the rewind button on a VCR. In reality, it's more complex than that. Time must be unraveled and rewoven to the desired moment. It is not exact, especially when the one doing the weaving is not a native of that timeline. Tempus Simia, the time monkey and a living part of time itself, had hoped to restart the timeline of the Supreme Empress from the moments leading up to the Centurion Project bracelet finding a home on Kim Possible's wrist, but came to the pivotal moment instead.

Kim Possible, who in the future would crown herself Supreme Empress Kimberly the First after becoming one with the Centurion Project, was in her bedroom on the phone with both Ron Stoppable and Monique Davies. Before, this was the moment that her tranformation began. The stresses of lying to her best friend, and then to her parents, caused the biometrics in the Centurion Project to come on line, and for the armor to start deploying. After the stress became too much, the armor fully activated and wired itself directly into Kim's brain. Her path towards world domination began at that moment.

Tempus Simia had brought both her and her world's version of Ron Stoppable back to their timeline, allowed then to again become part of time's flow, and restarted everything, hoping that one or both of them would carry a spark of memory of future events. The diminutive monkey prayed to the Monkey King that his gamble would pay off.

"You're sure that Josh will show?" Kim asked Monique, hoping beyond all hope that her crush wasn't as confirmed an appearance as Monique had said.

"Yeah," Monique confirmed, "deal with it."

"I am." Kim switched back to Ron's line. She really didn't want to miss Josh by trick or treating with Ron, but she didn't want to disappoint her lifelong best friend, either. Kim stammered for a few moments while her brain came up with a way out of this. _There is a way out of this, right? I mean, there has to be! Mom wanted me to help out with the hospital's haunted house. I could just tell him I'm doing that!_

She was about to lie to her best friend when another thought entered her head; an image of an armor clad oppressor with her face. As quickly as it entered Kim's mind, it vanished, as did her desire to lie. There was a way out of this sitch, but it wouldn't be an easy one. "Look... Ron, I, uh, I think I'm going to opt out of the T or T action tonight."

"What?" her crestfallen friend asked. "Why?"

"We're in high school, Ron," she said as gently as possible. "We're a little old to be begging for candy. Even the Tweebs decided not to trick or treat this year."

"But," Ron protested, "this is what we always do!"

"Maybe it's time to do something else," Kim suggested. "I'm gonna be honest with you right now. Josh's band is playing at Monique's party tonight, and I'd like to see him." Kim's eyes widened when she realized what she said. "Them! See them. Play. Because I like their music."

"Yeah, right," Ron said dejectedly. "It's all about the Mankey."

Kim's heart sank when she heard Ron's tone of voice. "It's not like that, Ron. Monique invited you too, you know. And you're always saying how bondigetty a dancer you are. Why not come to the party and show off your moves?"

"I don't know, KP."

Kim was getting an idea. "Tell you what. If you really want some fun Halloween action, why don't we swing by the hospital's haunted house before we go to the party. There'll be candy there, and you can see all the neat scary stuff."

"I'm still not sure, KP," Ron sighed. "I'll, uh, I'll think about it and let you know." With that, he hung up the phone.

Kim collapsed back on her bed and sighed. "I hated doing that," she said aloud. "But he deserved the truth."

Tempus smiled and watched the rest of the night progress. Ron eventually relented and agreed to go with Kim to Monique's party, in exchange for a week's worth of grande sized naco combos at Bueno Nacho. Drakken and Kiligan had been listening in, as they had before, and follwed Kim and Ron to the hospital to reclaim the Centurion Project. During the ensuing battle, the armor remained inert and in bracelet form. It wasn't until it was removed the following Monday that Kim learned the truth about the Centurion Project, and what could have happened had it activated on her.

Even though he was sheathed in a pocket of his native timeline, Tempus felt his strength starting to wane. "I will leave them for now," he said to himself. "But I shall return to see how they progress. I am curious about how this timeline will play itself out now." Tempus reopened the pan temporal vortex and stepped through, confident that this time, Kim Possible and Ron Stoppable had bright futures ahead of them.

----

"Wait a second!" Shego shouted when Tempus and Mad Dog vanished into the swirling blue portal. "Just what are we supposed to do until you get back!? Come back here, you stupid little monkey!!!" Shego turned in a huff and gave her son Nogo confused and annoyed look. "That little primate ditched us!"

"I did no such thing," Tempus curtly replied from the exact same spot he vanished from. "Really, Shego, I was gone for but an instant. There was nothing to worry about."

"I hate time travel," Shego grumbled.

"Well?" Dawn Stoppable, the future doughter of Kim and Ron asked. "What happened?"

"The Supreme Empress will never arise," Tempus happily replied. "While I failed to restart time from before Lady kimberly gained the Centurion Project, she herself prevented it from activating. She was truthful with Master Ronald about her Halloween plans, and thus, did not endure the stress that first activated the armor. They have a new future ahead of them."

"What happens to them?" Hana Stoppable asked.

"I do not know yet," Tempus said. "I was beginning to tire, so I departed before I could view their futures. But rest assured that they are in the best of hands. Their own."

"So what happens to us now?" Kim Possible asked.

"Simple, Lady Kimberly. Now you return to your proper places in time."

"But we won't remember any of this, will we?" Dawn asked in a sad voice when she saw her aunt and Nogo join hands.

"Bits and pieces at best, Dawn," Tempus said. "That is as it should be. One really should not know too much of his or her own future."

Dawn was about to go over to Hana and Nogo to tell them about what they could expect when her brother stopped her. "Don't sis," he whispered. "If we've learned anything from this sitch, it's not to go messing around with time."

"No need to whisper, young Ronald," Tempus said. "I have halted time for the others. Dawn, I know that you wish to spare the Han and Joseph heartache, but those trials are a part of life. You and your brother both will face the joys and pains of love, as all men and women do. As I said, it is a part of life. But do not despair for your aunt or her loved one. They will again find happiness."

"With each other?' Dawn tearfully asked, remembering the hurt on Hana and Joey's face in the days after they split up.

"That I should not say. You may remember it if I tell you, and then you might try to alter their futures. Trust in them to find their paths in this world, Dawn, as they trust you to find yours. The Han and Joseph are very strong people, as are you and your brother. Do not mourn for them, but celebrate the love they shared; the love they still share. Their separation was not due to anger or betrayal, but due to distance. They do remain on good terms, do they not?"

"It's not the same," Dawn sadly replied.

"No, it is not. Trust them, Dawn, and have faith in the future."

In the blink of an eye, the others picked up where they left off, unaware that time for them had stopped.

"Bro," Hana said, "could... could I say goodbye to Rufus?"

"Sure, little sis," Ron repleid, right before Rufus jumped into Hana's waiting hands.

The teenage super ninja tried to stifle a sob as she hugged the naked mole rat, but couldn't hold it back. "I've missed you so much, Rufus," she cried. "It was good to see you again."

Ron was confused. "Why do you miss Rufus?"

"When we're from," Nogo said, "Rufus has.... passed away."

"H-how?" asked in disbelief.

"From the one enemy Grandfather said no one could defeat," Hana answered. "Old age. He had a long and happy life, Bro. You and Sis should be proud. And he has a legacy. Roxy and Rachel aren't his only grandkids." The two female naked mole rats, Rufus's descendants, popped out of their respective pockets and nodded, right before scurrying and leaping into Hana's grasp and embracing their grandfather. "Just wait until his mate Ramona shows up," Hana said. "Then things get interesting."

Kim rolled her eyes and smiled. "It figures that Ron would get another naked mole rat."

"Ramona's not Uncle Ron's," Nogo said.

"She's not?"

"No, Mom," RJ added. "She's yours."

"I think that is enough for now," Tempus said, trying to keep the flow of information at a minimum. "I think it is time for you all to return home."

Nogo quickly hugged his mother. "Bye, Mom," he said. "Thanks."

Shego pulled away and looked her son in the eyes. "Your dad and I did all right, didn't we?"

"Better than all right. Lisa and I have the best parents ever."

"Lisa," Shego said. "I can't wait to meet her."

"It'll be in four years," Hana said. "Not too long after my nephew gets here. I should warn you that she takes after her father. A lot!"

Shego scrutinized Hana a little. "You be good to my boy now," she warned.

"Don't worry, Sheila," Hana smiled. "I love Joey. I'm not going anywhere." No one noticed Dawn and RJ wince at the comment.

Ron and Kim, meanwhile, were embracing their own children. "See you in four years," RJ said when they released each other.

"And I'll be here in seven," Dawn added.

"You're sure that I'm a good father?" Ron asked again.

"Dad, look at us," RJ said. "We follow in your footsteps instead of rebelling and becoming super villains. That should tell you something."

Hana and Joey came up to Kim and Ron. "You guys take care of each other now," Hana said as she embraced her siblings.

"Same to you, little sister," Kim smiled.

"Hey, Joey, you treat my sister good," Ron warned.

Nogo swallowed hard. "Yes, sir. I will. No need to demonstrate the MMP on me!"

"I never make that threat, do I?"

"Yes, you did," RJ, Dawn and Hana said in unison.

"I won't tell you what you did the first time a boy asked me out," Dawn added. "Grandpa James would have been proud."

The sound of Tempus clearing his throat halted the conversation. "Please, I must return you to your lives so that time may restart."

"Kind of in a hurry to get rid of us, aren't you?" Shego said as she examined her clawed gloves.

"As a matter of fact, I am. I do not want you knowing too much of your futures, just in case you carry substantial memories with you. Not to mention the fact that I am more than a little fatigued. I need to commune with time to replenish myself. I cannot do that fully while this pocket of time is separate from the linear flow. You will all see each other again, but you must wait until the proper time."

"He's right," Hana said. She reached behind her neck and started untying her time necklace. "Wait a minute, what about the necklace we gave Wade?"

"You mean, this one?" Tempus held up a cord with a fragment of his old physical form. "I removed it just before we went to face the Empress. Young Mr. Load has already reintegrated with the timeline."

Dawn and RJ gave her 'rents one more smile. "Take care of yourselves," she said. "We'll be here before you know it."

With that, the necklaces were removed, and for the various members of Team Possible, the world faded to white.

Tempus Simia was left alone. With a sigh of relief, he scattered the fragments of his old body throughout history, allowed those few seconds of time to rejoin the normal ebb and flow of events, and then he himself faded away, becoming one with the timestream. He had earned his rest.

----

_Epilogue: Fast Track Universe, two weeks before the start of Kim's final semester at the University of Upperton; two years after graduation. The Stoppable home._

Kim Stoppable awoke with a start. She'd had what had to be the most freaky dream she'd ever had. She and her husband Ron had never been married, and then they had to team up with...... _Who did we team up with? And against who? Looks like that dream's already fading. But it seemed so real!_

Kim looked around her dark bedroom and recognized it as the bedroom she shared with Ron, only he wasn't in bed with her. In fact, his side of the bed hadn't been slept in at all. A quick glance at the alarm clock told her that it was almost three in the morning. Ron wasn't home, and neither was Rufus. She was about to call him on his Ron-link when she heard the front door close.

Kim quickly got out of bed and made a bee line to the living room. She saw a very tired Ron Stoppable hanging his keys on the hook. "Rough night?" she asked, remembering that Ron had to work the 4:00 pm to midnight shift at the Mega Smarty Mart; a definite drawback to working for a store that was open 24/7.

"You could say that, KP," Ron yawned. "I should've been home a couple hours ago. One of the new guys got caught with his hand in the cookie jar, and I don't mean in the bakery section." Ron gave his wife another look, and in the blink of an eye, gathered her into a crushing hug. "I don't know why, but for a while there it felt like I'd never see you again."

"I know, baby," Kim replied. "I thought we'd never gotten together when I woke up and you weren't there. It was major freaky. I guess we've been burning the candle at both ends, lately." Kim pulled away and gave her guy a quick kiss. "Come to bed, Ron. I could use some cuddle action from my hubby."

"Sounds good to me, KP."

"Will you two please go to bed and shut up!?" the irate voice of their house guest and good friend Monique demanded from the doorway of her bedroom. "I have to be up early for my first day at Club Banana Elite in the morning, and you guys having a loud Kodak moment in the hallway isn't helping me sleep!"

"Sorry, Mon," Kim chuckled. "Goodnight."

----

_Epilogue: Fast Track Universe, the same evening. The Lipsky home._

Sheila Gordon Lipsky, the woman formerly known as Shego, looked in on her son Joey as he slept. She had never expected to give up her life of crime, get married and start a family. But that's exactly what happened after the first Lorwardian invasion.

"He's been sleeping in the big boy bed for over a week now and he hasn't fallen out," her husband Drew, the former Dr. Drakken said. "I think he'll be fine."

"I think he will, too," Sheila said almost her herself. "I don't know why, but I just needed to check in on him."

"That's because you're a good mommy," Drew smiled.

Sheila looked over at her husband and kissed his cheek. "I don't know about that, but I'm trying. Besides, you make a pretty good dad. It's a team effort."

Drew scrutinized Sheila a bit. "You're being a little too nice. Are you feeling all right?"

"Just tired," Sheila yawned. "Come on, let's go back to bed. For some reason, I feel like I just went twenty rounds with Kimmie back in the old days."

----

_Epilogue: Fast Track Universe, fourteen years after graduation during summer vacation. The Pit Stop Diner._

Hana Stoppable had felt on edge all day. All through the train ride from Middleton to Upperton, she was fidgety. That feeling only got worse when they got to the Pit Stop Diner in Upperton. She'd half expected her boyfriend Joey Lipsky to try to calm her down, but he was a bit on edge, as well.

"I actually went out of my way to be nice to my sister before we left," he confessed. "I don't know why, either! She was being a bigger pest than normal. She grabbed my ponytail, phased it through the wall, and left it there. And I was still nice to her after my mom made her set me loose! I think I'm getting sick, or something."

"I've been off, too," Hana said. "I just want to go see my brother and the fam, right now." She looked down at her Kimmunicator watch. Kim, RJ and Dawn would be there soon to drag Ron out of the kitchen for lunch.

"I'd ask if this was one of those monkey power things I wouldn't understand, but I'm feeling it too."

Hana gave Joey a weak grin. "Maybe it's one of those Team Possible things neither of us understands yet."

----

_Epilogue: Fast Track Universe, twenty four years after graduation, one month into the Spring semester of RJ Stoppable's freshman year of college. The Stoppable home._

Dawn Stoppable sat at the breakfast table and fidgeted with her toast. Her pet naked mole rat Rachel was eyeing the food item with great interest. "Go ahead," Dawn told her pet. "I'm not all that hungry right now."

"Good morning, fabulous family!" Ron Stoppable announced when he walked in the kitchen. He was almost knocked off his feet when his daughter tackle hugged him. "Whoah there, Dawnie!"

"Sorry, Dad," Dawn said sheepishly. "I'm just really glad to see you is all."

"You saw me last night before you went to bed."

"I know. I can't explain it. I did the same thing with Mom when I saw her this morning."

"Don't worry about it too much," Ron smiled. "Where's your brother?"

"He was out late last night with Lisa Lipsky," Dawn said with a mischievous grin. "Maybe he's not back home yet."

"I'm home," RJ Stoppable yelled from the living room. "I got back at ten last night!" RJ, fully dressed and ready for the day, came into the dining area. "And I wasn't 'out' with Lisa," he said, using air quotes around the word "out."

"Then why were you out so late?" Dawn pressed.

"Class project." Both RJ and Lisa were students at the University of Upperton. RJ was living at home since he already lived in Upperton, while Lisa stayed in the dorms.

"Dawn, leave your brother alone," Kim Stoppable said as she came up beside her husband. RJ came over and gave his parents a big hug.

"Am I missing something here?" Ron asked. "You kids haven't been this lovey in years."

"We're all right, Dad," RJ said with a lopsided grin similar to his father's. "It's just, it's a good day, that's all."

"Speaking of good days," Kim said, "Sheila told me last night that Joey's coming back to Middleton for good."

"Really?" Dawn and RJ asked. "Jinx!" they proclaimed in unison.

"I hate that," Dawn grumbled. "Neither of us ever wins."

"Neither of you lose, either," Ron pointed out. "Take it from someone who used to lose a jinx all the time. A tie is a good thing. So what was this about Joey, KP?"

"He'll be teaching biology at Middleton High in the fall," Kim said as she sat down. "He's finally coming home."

"Now if only Hana would come back," Dawn said sullenly. "I mean, she graduated from college how long ago?"

Kim put an arm around her daughter. "Dawnie, honey, you know why Hana left for Japan after college. She wanted to learn more about her birth family."

"I know," Dawn said. "It's just, with Joey coming back...."

"Them both coming home at the same time doesn't mean they'd get back together," RJ pointed out.

"I know Hana and Joey breaking up was hard for you to accept," Kim said, "but that's life sometimes. Hana was in New York and Joey was in Nevada. Time and distance did their damage."

"They're still friends," Ron added. "They're just not what they were."

"I always thought they'd be like you and Dad," Dawn said to her mother. "I mean, Joey was always like family. I was hoping that they'd make it official and he'd be my uncle for real."

"He's family in every way but blood," Ron said in one of his moments of insight. "Nothing's gonna change that. Now come on. I'll drop you off at school on my way to the diner." Ron looked over at RJ. "Did you still want to work the late shift tonight, son?"

"Sure!" RJ happily answered. "I've been wanting to help cook for the dinner crowd."

"Booyah!" Ron exclaimed. "That's my boy!"

----

Tempus Simia smiled at the sight before him. The future was unfolding as it should. He thought about venturing to Las Vegas and to Mt. Yamanuchi to see how Joey and Hana were doing, but decided that could wait for another time. Instead, he returned to the timestream and sheathed himself in its energies. He then opened a pan temporal vortex and floated through. He had another future to check up on.

----

_The timeline of the Supreme Empress, three weeks before the start of the Fall semester at the University of Upperton; two years after graduation. The home of Dean and Dana Stoppable._

"Hello?" Dean Stoppable said into the telephone receiver.

"Hi, Mr. S," was the reply.

"Kimberly!" Dean smiled. "When did you get back from England?"

"I've been home for a few days," Kim Possible replied. "But between a few missions and trying to get over some ferocious jet lag, I haven't been out and about much. Is Ron home?"

"I'm afraid not," Dean answered. "It was such a nice day that Ronald decided to take Hana to the park."

"Why am I not surprised," Kim said. "Thanks, Mr. S. I'll go look for him there."

----

As Kim walked from her parents' house to the park, she couldn't help but think about how much things had changed in the two years since she graduated. _More like how things have changed since junior year,_ she thought. Around the time of the junior prom, she and Ron thwarted a particularly nasty plan of Dr, Drakken. Using a toy design he had stolen from Mr. Nakasumi, he had planned on taking over Bueno Nacho, and then the world. All he needed was a project Kim's dad had been working on called Hephaestus. Fortunately, Kim and Ron stopped Drakken before he could put his plan into full effect. His L'il Diablo plot was foiled before it could really start.

It was a good thing, too. Kim later found out that Drakken was planning on creating a synthodrone with the ability to perfectly mimic a teenage boy and use it to prey on her emotions. _As Ron would say, wrong-sick,_ she thought with a shudder. With the junior prom coming up and Bonnie spewing on about the food chain and a prom date making a statement, Kim was certain she would have gone for it hook, line and sinker.

Instead of being played, she wound up going to the prom with Bobby Johnson, who she later started dating. She started drifting away from Ron after that. _We drifted away from each other. Which was so weird since I thought Ron would stand by me no matter what. I always had this feeling that he'd be there for me, even if I went all psycho evil and became a super villain. But then again, I guess I didn't give him much reason to stick around._

Bobby didn't get the whole "male best friend" thing, and decided that it was his job to accompany Kim on missions. Bobby liked th excitement, but he didn't like being the sidekick or the distraction, so eventually he bowed out. Monique became Kim's new sidekick after that. It just wasn't the same, though.

_The only time it felt right were those missions about Ron's baby sister, and when Ron came to my rescue when the aliens invaded. Not even Bobby came to help me, and he was supposed to be my boyfriend._ That relationship didn't survive too long after graduation. To be honest, Kim wasn't sure how it lasted for more than a year. After graduation, she was London bound, having turned down an invitation to join Global Justice's Fast Track program, and Ron stayed in town to attend Middleton Community College. They hadn't seen much of each other since then. Kim was determined to put a stop to that pattern today.

_A friendship that's lasted since pre-k isn't going to end now. Not if I can do anything about it. And I'm Kim Possible. I can do anything!_

The sound of a little girl happily giggling is what drew Kim to the swing set. There she saw Ron Stoppable, pushing his adopted baby sister Hana on one of the swings.

"Who's a boo ba?" Ron asked the laughing little girl.

"Me!" Hana squealed. "I'm a boo ba!"

Kim couldn't help but chuckle. The times that she saw Ron with Hana, after he got over the initial resentment of his parents adopting her behind his back and relocating him to the attic, were always a joy to watch. _He is so ferociously good with kids,_ she thought. _I bet he'll make an amazing dad._

Kim was pulled from her thoughts by a happy little voice yelling, "KP! Look, Brother! It's KP!"

Ron Stoppable's eyes lit up when he saw his childhood best friend walking up to him. "Kim!" he exclaimed. As soon as he had Hana out of the swing, he went up to Kim and gave her the biggest hug he could. "Boy have I missed you!"

"Same here, Ron. Same here." Kim pulled back enough to kiss her friend on the cheek.

"Awwww," a happy little voice said. Kim and Ron looked down to see Hana looking adorably innocent. They both blushed furiously.

"So, uh," Ron stammered, "how long are you back for? I mean, the new semester starts up for me pretty soon."

"I'm back for good, Ron," Kim smiled. "London was too far away from the people I love, so I spent the last semester getting as far ahead as I could and getting my units transferred to Upperton. I'm home, Ron."

"Booyah!" Ron and Hana both shouted.

"I have so missed that," Kim laughed. _It's now or never, _she thought. "So, uh, Ron. Are you, you know, seeing anyone?"

"Nah," Ron answered in a nonchalant sort of way. "Too busy with school, work, and Hana patrol. Besides, now that yours truly has also managed to get transferred to Upperton, I'll have less time, what with the commuting and all."

"We're going to the same school?" A huge smile grew on Kim's face. "Ron that's great! We so need to celebrate."

"Coolio! We can go hang out like old times. Before Bobby."

"Yuck, Bobby," a voice from Ron's cargo pocket spat. A bald pink head popped out, and a very happy Rufus squeaked, "Kim home!"

Kim happily caught the naked mole rat when he leapt into her hands. "I've missed you, Rufus. As for Bobby, that train has left the station. I never should have let him push you away like that."

"Yeah, well, that was kinda my bad, too," Ron said, rubbing the back of his neck. "I mean, yeah it hurt, but I wanted you to be happy. And I thought that, if you knew how jealous I was of the guy, it would make you think you had to choose between us."

"You were jealous?" Kim asked, getting confirmation on something she'd long suspected.

Ron reached down and picked up his little sister. "Yeah, big time. And I kinda knew that I didn't stand a chance. So, I just let you go be happy without me."

"That wasn't fair to you," Kim pointed out. "Or to me. I needed my best friend there with me. No one can take your place in my life, Ron. No one."

"Thanks, KP. So, what was this about celebrating?"

Kim's smile returned, although this time it had a sultry aspect to it. "I was thinking you and me. Dinner at a place that's not Bueno Nacho, and then a movie. After that, maybe a nice romantic stroll through the park."

Ron's eyes went wide. "Uh, KP, are you feeling okay? That almost sounded like a-"

"Date?" Kim asked. "That's because it is. I'm asking you out on a date, Ron Stoppable. And before you ask, no I don't have a Moodulator on the back of my neck. This is me asking a great guy I've really missed out on a date. So, are you gonna give me an answer, or stand there with your mouth hanging open?"

Hana giggled and pushed her brother's mouth closed. "Uh, well, uh, I, uh..."

"Yes!" Hana giggled.

"Han! I can answer for myself, you know."

"Well," Kim asked with a cocked eyebrow.

Ron gave her his trademark lopsided grin. "I think a date with you would be the bondigettiest!"

"Spankin'!" Kim walked over and gave Ron a chaste yet lingering on the lips. "That's a sneak preview of later," she said in a sly voice. "I'll meet you at my place at seven. Don't be late." Kim then turned and walked off with a huge grin on her face.

"Booyah!" Ron shouted to the heavens. "I've got a date with Kim Possible!!!!!!"

----

Tempus Simia, the time monkey, smiled as much as his simian features allowed. _They are not on the same path as their counterparts just yet, but every journey begins with a single step. I think they took several steps in the right direction._

Tempus reopened the pan temporal vortex and prepared to return home. _I will have to return someday to check on their progress. But for now, I will leave them in peace._ Tempus took another look at the happy Monkey Master. _You confided to your counterpart in my timeline that he had what you always wanted. It seems you may yet get all that your heart desires. Good luck to you, Master Ronald. I have no doubt that your future is a bright one._

_----_

_Author's note:_

_I know I'm leaving a lot open, but that's just in case I decide to revisit this someday. I've been asked if I plan on doing a spin off that goes back the now altered timeline of the other Kim and Ron, and I don't know for sure right now. I guess I'll have to see if the inspiration hits me._

_I also know that some people were wondering about the breakup of Hana and Joey. That I will be expanding on in a future story._

_Big thanks to all those who read and reviewed. If all goes well, I'll have one last one shot ready before the end of the year. Until then, thanks for hanging in there with me!_


End file.
